Health Winners and Losers: AstraZeneca
Health care stocks started the week mixed amid a smattering of earnings, trial data and other news.
AstraZeneca
(AZN) - Get Astrazeneca PLC Sponsored ADR Report
said Monday that its heart drug Brilinta worked better than
Bristol-Myers Squibb's
(BMY) - Get Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Report
and
Sanofi-Aventis'
(SNY) - Get Sanofi Report
blockbuster blood-thinner Plavix in a study.
According to U.K.-based AstraZeneca, the drug was more effective at preventing serious cardiac events such as myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular death than clopidogrel, or Plavix, in a stage III trial. The company said it plans to submit the drug to regulatory authorities in the fourth quarter of 2009.
AstraZeneca shares were up 5.6% to $38.15. Bristol shares were down 0.5% to $20.29, and Sanofi-Aventis slipped 1% to $29.86.
Meanwhile,
The Wall Street Journal
is reporting that the deaths of two patients in Delaware who took
Baxter's
TheStreet Recommends
(BAX) - Get Baxter International Inc. Report
blood-thinner heparin have spurred concern of a contamination akin to one in 2008. A third patient also had medical problems, according to
The Journal
.
A representative for Baxter told the paper that the drug involved in the deaths contained bulk material supplied by
Pfizer
(PFE) - Get Pfizer Inc. Report
. Pfizer couldn't be reached for comment by
The Journal
. In the approximately 80 deaths that were linked to tainted heparin last year, the bulk material came from China, Baxter said.
"We are not pointing fingers at Baxter," Wallace Hudson of Beebe Medical Center, which confirmed the deaths, told
The Journal
. "We don't know what's going on, but heparin is the only commonality that we were able to see ourselves." The heparin is being tested, but so far no problems have been found, the report said.
Baxter shares were up 0.2% to $50.36. Pfizer shares were down 1.7% to $14.15.
Elsewhere in the sector:
Novo Nordisk
(NVO) - Get Novo Nordisk A/S Report
has reportedly agreed to pay a
$9 million fine
in an Iraqi kickback scheme in which the company admitted it paid Saddam Hussein's government more than $1 million for contracts. Shares of the company closed down 0.2% to $48.86.
King Pharmaceuticals
(KG)
shares rose 4.4% to $9.09 after its
surpassed analysts' projections.
Johnson & Johnson
(JNJ) - Get Johnson & Johnson Report
was down 1.6% to $54.11.
Eli Lilly
(LLY) - Get Eli Lilly and Company Report
fell 1.7% to $35.35.
