Health Winners & Losers: Elan

Health stocks generally traded slightly lower Tuesday, in line with the broader markets, despite some individual stock moves spurred by clinical data.

Elan (ELN Quote) and Wyeth (WYE Quote) shed some light Tuesday on the much anticipated phase II trial on bapineuzumab as a treatment for Alzheimer's. The companies said the drug did not register statistically significant efficacy when assessed for the whole 240 patients enrolled. But it did meet some endpoints in a subgroup of patients who didn't have a higher genetic risk for developing Alzheimer's -- non-carriers of the Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) allele. The companies said this group accounts for 40% to 70% of the Alzheimer's population.

Elan shares added $2.59, or 9.6% to $29.70, while Wyeth shares traded up $2.12, or 4.9%, at $45.20. The companies plan to continue a previously disclosed phase III program.

Leerink and Swann upgraded Wyeth to outperform from market perform Tuesday. The stock is a component of the Amex pharmaceutical index, but that individual boost wasn't quite enough to keep the index out of the red. The pharma index fell 0.1% to 285.91. The Nasdaq and Amex biotechnology indices were down 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively.

A component of the Nasdaq biotechnology index, Acadia(ACAD Quote), continued its descent for a second day after the company announced that its ACP-104 for the treatment of schizophrenia failed a phase IIb trial. On Tuesday the company suffered downgrades from Bank of America, Friedman Billings Ramsey and Jeffries and Co. -- to sell, market perform and hold, respectively. Shares edged down another 37 cents, or 7.7%, to $4.46 Tuesday, after giving up more than 40% in the previous trading session.