Health Stock Winners and Losers: Glaxo

Updated from 3:16 p.m. EDT

Buoyed by the idea that swine flu fears could at least temporarily boost sales at some firms, health care stocks were largely in the green Monday.

GlaxoSmithKline(GSK), which makes antiviral drug Relenza, was among the day's early winners. The company, which issued a press release Monday that said it had sent Mexican officials 100,000 packs of Relenza and 170,000 additional doses of its seasonal flu vaccine, is "urgently assessing" ways to increase production of Relenza. Shares of the company rose 7.6% to $31.56. Novavax(NVAX), which owns technology for creating vaccines, rose 79.6% to $2.55.

Pfizer(PFE) shares rose 2.4% to $13.49 a day before the company's quarterly earnings report. Analysts expect the Lipitor maker, which is buying Wyeth(WYE), to report earnings of 49 cents on $11.08 billion in revenue, according to Thomson One.

Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY), which also reports earnings Tuesday, rose 2.2% to $20.54. Analysts polled by Thomson One expect the firm to earn 47 cents per share on $5.13 billion in revenue.

Elsewhere:

Eli Lilly(LLY) shares rose 0.4% to $33.13.

Johnson & Johnson(JNJ) fell 0.1% to $50.86.

Merck(MRK) was essentially flat at $23.44.

Novo Nordisk(NVO) fell 2.6% to $47.49. The company reports earnings Thursday.

Abbott Labs(ABT) rose 0.2% to $43.16.

Schering-Plough(SGP) rose 0.1% to $22.19.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints