Biotech Sector Weekly Rewind
BOSTON (
) -- Adam Feuerstein's take on the biotech week that was Oct. 11, 2010:
Pfizer
( KG)
King Pharmaceuticals
( KG) for $3.6 billion to bolster its pain drug franchise.
Pfizer adds new partners through King Buy
Alkermes
(ALKS) - Get Report
CEO Richard Pops (@popsalks)
breaks company news on Twitter
. Bravo! (via @MikeHuckman)
The news broken by Pops: Finally, a drug approval in October! Alkermes received FDA clearance to market
Vivitrol as a treatment for opioid addiction
.
Alexza Pharmaceuticals
(ALXA)
and
Jazz Pharmaceuticals
(JAZZ) - Get Report
not as lucky:
FDA denies approval to both of their drugs
.
Questcor Pharmaceuticals
(QCOR)
receives belated FDA approval for Acthar as a treatment for infantile spasms.
The week's top-performing sector stocks:
Pharmathene
(PIP)
(+120%),
Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals
( MIPI) (+65%),
Rosetta Genomics
(ROSG)
(+60%),
SIGA Technologies
(SIGA) - Get Report
(+56%) and
King Pharmaceuticals
( KG) (+37%).
Johnson & Johnson's
(JNJ) - Get Report
abiraterone boosts survival by four months
for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
Seattle Genetics
(SGEN) - Get Report
reported a second clinical trial win for the lymphoma drug brentuximab vedotin.
This week's
:
Exact Sciences
(EXAS) - Get Report
,
Sequenom
(SQNM)
,
Vanda Pharmaceuticals
(VNDA) - Get Report
,
Delcath Systems
(DCTH)
,
Labopharm
( DDSS),
Cadence Pharmaceuticals
(CADX)
and
Transcept Pharmaceuticals
(TSPT)
.
Forbes'
Matt Herper on the
fight against drug-resistant germs
.
Cancer drug analyst and blogger Sally Church
spends the week at the European cancer conference known as ESMO
.
The week's worst-performing sector stocks:
Alexza Pharmaceuticals
(ALXA)
(-56%),
Spherix
(SPEX) - Get Report
(-24%),
AspenBio Pharma
( ANDS) (-17%),
Anadys Pharmaceuticals
( ANDS) (-16%) and
ProPhase Labs
(PRPH) - Get Report
(-13%).
Cubist Pharmaceuticals
(CBST)
reports third quarter Cubicin sales of $154 million, lower than the consensus estimate of $162 million. The company reports higher-than-expected earnings for the quarter on lower operating expenses.
The biggest (sore) losers:
Arena Pharmaceuticals
(ARNA) - Get Report
.
Chemist and blogger Derek Lowe takes another
skeptical look at the anti-aging claims
made about GlaxoSmithKline's resveratrol.
Will the withdrawal of Meridia
help or hurt other weight-loss pills
? (via Pharmalot)
Reuters Health
editor Ivan Oransky on
Geron
(GERN) - Get Report
and its
first-ever stem cell study in patients with spinal cord injury
.
"Scrapers" are scouring web sites
looking for patients' personal information
.
Roche
reports weaker-than-expected sales of its three most important drugs -- Avastin, Rituxan and Herceptin. Overall, third quarter revenue fell 7%.
ImmunoGen
(IMGN) - Get Report
and
Novartis
(NVS) - Get Report
strike a licensing deal to develop cancer drugs based on ImmunoGen's "armed antibody" drug delivery technology.
Exelixis
(EXEL) - Get Report
licenses two experimental cancer drugs to
Bristol-Myers Squibb
(BMY) - Get Report
.
Perfect FDA Drug Approval Pickers
Halozyme Therapeutics
(HALO) - Get Report
cut 25% of its workforce in a restructuring move.
The week in financings:
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
(RGEN) - Get Report
($175 million),
Cytori Therapeutics
(CYTX)
($19 million) and
Anadys Pharmaceuticals
( ANDS) ($25 million).
FDA doesn't always heed the
recommendations offered by its advisory panels
. (via @matthewherper)
Phase III data on
Titan Pharmaceuticals'
(TTNP.OB)
implantable addiction drug is published in JAMA
.
Boehringer Ingelheim
drops development of a drug for the controversial disorder known as female sexual dysfunction
.
Celgene
(CELG) - Get Report
completes acquisition of
Abraxis BioScience
.
--Written by Adam Feuerstein in Boston.
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Adam Feuerstein writes regularly for TheStreet.com. In keeping with TSC's editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks, although he owns stock in TheStreet.com. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. Feuerstein appreciates your feedback;
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