Tuesday's Health Winners & Losers

Genentech falls on reports of drug death, while Geron rises.

Author:: Althea Chang
Publish date:: Dec 19, 2006 1:36 PM EST

Genentech falls on reports of drug death, while Geron rises.

Genentech( DNA) and Biogen Idec (BIIB) - Get Report both fell after the Food and Drug Administration warned doctors of a serious side effect of their drug Rituxan. The letter informed doctors that two patients taking the drug for lupus died from a rare brain disease. Genentech's shares were down 18 cents to $80.78 after a more dramatic drop earlier in the day, while Biogen Idec's shares sank $1.33 to $48.90.

Memory Pharmaceuticals

( MEMY) fell 17 cents, or 7%, to $2.27 after the company said it sold shares in the second installment of a previously announced private placement. The latest sale generated proceeds of $5.5 million for the company.

GenVec

(GNVC)

jumped 36% after the company announced positive early results from a trial on its proposed pancreatic cancer drug. Preliminary trial results showed that overall survival rates more than doubled when GenVec's drug, TNFerade, was added to a standard treatment for the disease. The company says that after one year, the survival rate was 70.5% in the group receiving the drug vs. 28% in the group receiving standard care alone. The stock most recently traded at $2.55, up 69 cents.

Geron

(GERN) - Get Report

says one of its experimental drugs may benefit breast cancer patients undergoing radiation. Early trial results showed that the drug GRN163L helped sensitize patients to radiation as a part of cancer therapy. Shares were up 20 cents, or 2.2%, to $9.

Among other health stocks winners on Tuesday were

Polydex Pharmaceuticals

(POLXF)

, gaining 4.4% to $6.85;

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals

(KERX) - Get Report

, rising 6.2% to $14.51;

SkyePharma

( SKYE), 1.3% higher to $4.81;

SuperGen

( SUPG), up 3.7% to $5.05; and

Neurogen