Health Winners & Losers: Forest Labs
08/15/08 - 05:26 PM EDT
Elizabeth Trotta
Health stocks were mixed going into the weekend with light news.
Pharma stocks ended Friday barely into the black. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index edged up 2.28, or 0.7%, to 317.83. All of its components except AstraZeneca(AZN Quote - Cramer on AZN - Stock Picks) and GlaxoSmithKline(GSK Quote - Cramer on GSK - Stock Picks) managed to end the day in positive territory. Those stocks lost 40 cents and 25 cents, respectively. The best performer on the pharma index was Forest Labs(FRX Quote - Cramer on FRX - Stock Picks), which added 94 cents, or 2.5%, to $38.71. The stock had started the week at $38.65, but fell as far as $37.28 midweek. Biotech stocks underperformed their pharma cousins, with the Nasdaq and Amex biotechnology indices giving up 0.4% apiece. Vertex(VRTX Quote - Cramer on VRTX - Stock Picks) and Nektar Therapeutics(NKTR Quote - Cramer on NKTR - Stock Picks) tugged the hardest at the latter index. Nektar shares gave up 39 cents, or 7.8%, to $4.62. After a slight rollercoaster week, Vertex shares gave up $1.51, or 5%, on Friday arriving at $28.46 -- just lower than where it opened the week at $28.76. One stock on the rise, Elan(ELN Quote - Cramer on ELN - Stock Picks) shares added $2.25, or 19%, to $14.07 after spending the rest of the week in the $10 to $12 range. The stock is still rebounding from a double slam in July when it presented mixed data on its Alheimer's candidate and suffered confirmed reports of deadly brain infection PML in Tysabri patients. A bit of day-old clinical buzz helped Micromet(MITI Quote - Cramer on MITI - Stock Picks). Results from an ongoing early-stage study published in the journal Science on Thursday showed that Blinatumomab, an antibody therapy the company is developing with MedImmune, wholly owned by AstraZeneca, resulted in tumor regression and in some cases complete remission in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who relapsed after previous treatments.
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