Thursday's Healthcare Winners & Losers

Regulatory approvals, deals and analyst downgrades gave rise and decline to a few biotech stocks on a relatively flat, yet more encouraging, day for the health sector.

Sciele Pharma(SCRX) gained $3.11, or 15.7%, on news that the Food and Drug Administration approved all four dose strengths of its new Sular formulation for high blood pressure. The formulation uses SkyePharma's Geomatrix technology to provide a lower dose of the drug for each of its already available doses. The company will launch the new formulations in the first quarter.

Also, biological testing technology company Luminex(LMNX) rose Thursday afternoon after the company announced it received FDA approval for its xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel, a test for respiratory viruses such as influenza and adenovirus. The test identifies 12 viruses and viral subtypes are cumulatively responsible for more than 85% of respiratory viral infections.

The company said the swab test, which has already received regulatory approval in Europe, is now available for diagnostic use in the U.S. through Luminex and Fisher HealthCare, a unit of Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO). Luminex tacked on $1.04, or 6.4%, to $17.27, and Thermo Fisher Scientific was trading up $1.20, or 2.2%, at $57.

Also on the uptick, Netherlands-based biotechnology company Crucell(CRXL) announced a commercialization agreement with the vaccines division of Sanofi Aventis(SNY), sanofi pasteur. The collaboration and agreement cover Crucell's monoclonal antibodies to be used for rabies vaccines. The company expects to enter phase II clinical trials in the first half of 2008.