Friday's Health Winners & Losers
Regulatory actions and earnings nudged a few health stocks on an otherwise flat end to the week Friday.
In regulatory news,
Progenics Pharmaceuticals
(PGNX) - Get Report
and
Wyeth
(WYE)
said late Thursday that they received
. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for pain-killer-induced constipation in patients who are receiving palliative care, when laxative therapy was unsuccessful.
In addition to the FDA approval, the pair received a positive opinion recommending approval in Europe. Progenics shares rose $2.85, or 26.8%, to $13.49. Wyeth was trading up 27 cents, or 0.6%, at $44.83.
In other green-light news,
Gilead
(GILD) - Get Report
said Friday that the European Commission granted the company marketing approval for Viread in chronic hepatitis B. Gilead's shares added 47 cents, or 0.9%, to $51.49 on Friday.
Meanwhile,
Genzyme
(GENZ)
and
Isis
(ISIS)
said FDA requirements will result in some
delays for Mipomersen
, the cholesterol-lowering antisense drug at the heart of their joint venture deal announced in January. The news sent Isis shares down $4.83, or 28.8%, to $11.97. Genzyme shares were down 88 cents, or 1.2%, to $72.46.
In earnings,
Amgen
(AMGN) - Get Report
reaffirmed 2008 expectations and said Thursday post-close that
first-quarter adjusted net income
fell 4% to roughly $1.2 billion. But on a per-share basis, the company reported adjusted profit of $1.12 a share, compared to $1.08 a share in the year-ago quarter.
Operating expenses came in at $2.07 billion vs. the $2.2 billion Wall Street consensus, helping Amgen beat views on the bottom line. Revenue was just slightly shy of Wall Street views, decreasing 2% to $3.613 billion, from $3.687 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of $1.05 a share on revenue of $3.624 billion.
Amgen shares were down 25 cents, or 0.7%, to $42.17.
Amgen, Gilead and Genzyme are all components of the Amex biotechnology index, which was up 0.3% at 751.51.
Also in earnings,
CV Therapeutics
(CVTX)
said Friday that it narrowed its first-quarter loss to $31.9 million, or 53 cents a share, from a lossof $55.1 million, or 93 cents a share, in the prior-year period. Higher Ranexa sales resulted in a 49% hike in revenue to $22.8 million. The company beat on the bottom line but missed on the top -- Wall Street predicted a loss of 50 cents a share on revenue of $24.9 million.
Shares were down 22 cents, or 2.4%, at $9.10.
And finally, in analyst action: Credit Suisse analyst Ken Weakley upgraded health-care services company
Tenet Healthcare
(THC) - Get Report
on Friday to outperform from neutral, raising his price target to $8 from $6, with optimism for price -- and subsequently revenue -- improvement. Shares were up 71 cents, or 13%, at $6.17.