Monday's Health Winners & Losers

Health stocks kept slightly green Monday amid an array of news, including trial updates, turnover and turmoil in general.

First, Acorda Therapeutics(ACOR Quote) tacked on 25% to $27.20 Monday after the company said a study showed its experimental multiple sclerosis drug Fampridine didn't cause an increase in the electrocardiographic QT interval in comparison to placebo.

The Food and Drug Administration requires companies to conduct QT studies on drugs because changes to the QT interval, a measure of time between waves in the heart's electrical cycle, can indicate risk of cardiac arrhythmias. The company expects data in the second quarter of this year from a second phase III study of the drug, which is currently being studied for improving walking ability in people with multiple sclerosis.

Another stock up on high volume, Medivation(MDVN Quote) said that after discussing midstage trial results with the FDA it now plans to move Alzheimer's treatment candidate Dimebon into late-stage development.

The company is holding a conference call Monday at 4:30 p.m. to discuss the decision. Watch for more on Medivation and this call from TheStreet.com senior columnist Adam Feuerstein. Shares were up 12.2% at $16.66.

Meanwhile, inching down a few percentage points, Biogen Idec(BIIB Quote) said Monday that activist investor Carl Icahn has nominated three people to the biotech company's board.

"We are taking this action because we believe that Biogen's recent purported attempt to find a suitor was not conducted in a way to enhance the success of the endeavor. We believe that the process was flawed in a number of key respects and that the process was run to placate us and other large shareholders who we believe asked for Biogen to find a buyer," Icahn said in a press release Monday.

His three nominees include ImClone Systems(IMCL Quote) board members Alexander Denner and Richard Mulligan. Denner is Icahn's lead advisor and also a board member at Adventrx(ANX Quote), and Mulligan is the director of the Gene Therapy Institute and an endowed professor of genetics at Harvard. The third proposed addition is Anne Young, chief of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Biogen ticked down 1.3% to $58.13.

On the ratings side, Jeffries and Co. analyst Eun Yang upgraded Medarex(MEDX Quote) to buy from hold, considering the long-term outlook for its cancer-treating compounds. The stock took a beating last December when the company's ipilimumab failed to affect any shrinkage of tumors in at least 10% of patients in a study reported. However, Yang noted that the drug could eventually show an improvement in overall survival rate.

Medarex is developing Ipilimumab with Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY Quote) and is also entitled to a 15% royalty on sales of tremelimumab, a similar product that Pfizer(PFE Quote) is developing. Late-stage data on the class of drugs, known as CTLA-4 inhibitors, are expected in 2009, and with potential commercial launches that year or the next, Yang sees Medarex poised to receive $300 million in royalties annually.

Medarex shares edged up 4% to $9.59, but are still nearly 47% lower than the stock's 52-week high. Medarex, Biogen and Acorda are all components of the Nasdaq biotechnology index, which was up 1.1% at 800.46.