Health Winners & Losers: Celgene

ASCO released an abstract for a study on Eli Lilly's (LLY Quote) Alimta in maintenance for non-small cell lung cancer. The drug is already approved as a second-line treatment and competes with OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP Quote) and Genentech's Tarceva.

Lilly's shares inched up 0.3% to $48.80, but OSI Pharma fell 0.5% to $35.73.

Two abstracts that we didn't get to look at: The AVADO study on Genentech's Avastin in lung cancer and the abstract for highly the anticipated FLEX trial data on Erbitux in non-small-cell lung cancer. Also ImClone (IMCL Quote) noted in a release that the abstract for an assessment of the link between the K-Ras gene status of the patient's tumor and the treatment effect of Erbitux in metastatic colorectal wasn't posted because it, too, was being presented in a plenary session.

Erbitux is being developed and marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY Quote), ImClone and Merck KGaA. ImClone fluctuated throughout the week, reacting to upgrades and downgrades, and skepticism about the strength of the Erbitux data to come. On Friday, shares were down 2.2% at $41.72.

Finally, in non-ASCO-realted news, Pharmacopeia (PCOP Quote) shares bound $1.12, or 35%, to $4.30 after the company said a phase IIa study on its PS433540 met primary and secondary endpoints and significantly lowered blood pressure in patients with mild to moderate hypertension. The company is presenting the results at the American Society of Hypertension annual meeting in Chicago.