Monday's Health Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:45 p.m. EST with new stock prices

A few health companies aired buyouts, agreements, updates and earnings on Monday, sending stocks in both directions on an overall sullen start to the week.

Celgene(CELG Quote) said it would buy fellow blood-cancer drug company Pharmion(PHRM Quote) in a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal. Celgene will pay $72 a share for Pharmion -- $25 in cash and $47 in Celgene stock. The price is a 46% premium to Pharmion's Friday closing price.

Pharmion shares rose $15.84, or 32.1%, to $65.12, and Celgene fell 90 cents cents, or 1.4%, to $64.00. Both stocks are components of the Nasdaq biotechnology index, which was down 12.55, or 1.5%, to 835.66.

Another component of the index, Sciele Pharma(SCRX Quote), signed an agreement with Novo Nordisk(NVO Quote) to exclusively market diabetes drugs Prandin and PrandiMet, upon Food and Drug Administration approval, to physicians in the U.S. Sciele Pharma will have the right of first refusal to obtain marketing rights in the U.S. to other Novo Nordisk products containing repaglinide, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in both Prandin and PrandiMet.

Sciele Pharma didn't disclose financial terms of the deal, but said it may receive revenue based on certain dollar baseline targets being met and expects this agreement to be immediately accretive. As a result, it increased its full-year 2008 revenue guidance to $440 million to $455 million, up roughly $10 million over previously announced guidance. It now expects to earn $1.97 to $2.07 a share for fiscal 2008, up roughly 10 cents from its previous guidance.

Sciele Pharma added 96 cents, or 4.8%, to $21.01. Novo Nordisk fell $1.27, or 1%, to $121.21.