Monday's Health Winners & Losers

Drug and health stocks were generally tracking in line with the broader market indices Monday, as regulatory news spurred much of the action in sector.

Making one of the biggest moves Monday was NeuroMetrix (NURO). Shares of the medical-device company soared more than 70% after the company said that the Food and Drug Administration granted 510(k) clearance in the U.S. to market its ADVANCE System, a device for physicians to test nerve conduction and perform invasive electromyography procedures. Shares of the Waltham, Mass., company were trading up $1.20, to $2.91 on more than 10 times the stock's average trading volume.

On the other hand, shares of biotech company Medarex (MEDX) traded to a new 52-week low Monday on news of regulatory delays for ipilimumab, an investigational immunotherapy for patients with advanced metastatic melanoma. The Princeton, N.J., biotech company disclosed after the market close Friday that the FDA has requested additional overall survival data for the experimental drug, prompting Medarex and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) to delay the biologics license application (BLA) for ipilimumab until at least 2009.

Shares of Medarex were down 8.1% at $7.36 in recent trading Monday; while shares of Bristol-Myers were up 0.5% at $22.25.

In other regulatory news, Merck (MRK) and Schering-Plough (SGP) announced after Friday's close that the FDA had decided not to approve the companies' application for a proposed nasal allergy treatment. The companies had submitted a new-drug application for a single tablet that contains loratadine (the active ingredients of Claritin) and montelukast (the active ingredient of Singulair). Schering and Merck are "evaluating the agency's response."