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 Quote), 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 Quote), which owns technology for creating vaccines, rose 79.6% to $2.55.

Pfizer(PFE Quote) 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 Quote), to report earnings of 49 cents on $11.08 billion in revenue, according to Thomson One. ...