Strategic Agreement Builds on Existing Data Management Partnership

Icon Plc.’s (ICLR) share price has entered into oversold territory with a stochastic value of 12.67. The Zacks Consensus Estimate on the company’s full-year earnings has climbed 8 cents over the past month to $1.50 per share. Icon is a Zacks #2 Rank (“Buy") company.
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Monday, November 2, 2009.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) announced 48-week data from an ongoing study (ETV-048) of chronic hepatitis B patients with decompensated cirrhosis, in which BARACLUDE demonstrated greater viral suppression compared to adefovir.

ICON plc, (NASDAQ:ICLR), a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, announced it has signed an extension to its strategic agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) to manage the company’s clinical data management outside the US.

Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUXL) announced executive management will participate in the Oppenheimer Healthcare Conference to be held November 3 - 4, 2009 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Arrayit Corporation (OTC:ARYC) is pleased to join the federal government in their efforts to help control health care costs by leveraging Arrayit's leading edge health care platform.

AEterna Zentaris Inc. (Nasdaq:AEZS), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on endocrine therapy and oncology, announced positive efficacy data from a Phase 2 study with its targeted cytotoxic peptide conjugate, AEZS-108 (formerly AN-152), in patients with platinum-resistant and taxane-pretreated ovarian cancer.

Perrigo Company (Nasdaq:PRGO) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Israel Consumer Products business along with the related production assets in Israel to Emilia Group, a subsidiary of O. Feller Holdings Ltd., for 205 million New Israeli Shekels (approximately $54 million).

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., (Nasdaq:VNDA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of clinical-stage products for central nervous system disorders, announced financial and operational results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (NYSE:KCI) announced the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan has granted final regulatory approval for KCI to market and sell its innovative V.A.C.® Therapy System in the country.

Cytori Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CYTX) will release and host a webcast to discuss its third quarter financial results on Monday, November 9, 2009 at 10:30 AM Eastern time.

GTx, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTXI) announced it has received a Complete Response Letter issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its New Drug Application (NDA) for toremifene 80 mg to reduce fractures in men with prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).

AMRI (NASDAQ:AMRI) announced a third compound being developed under its license and research agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) will proceed into preclinical development.

GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTCB) announced LFB Biotechnologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of LFB S.A. (Laboratoire françaindu Fractionnement et des Biotechnologies S.A., Les Ulis, France) and a strategic shareholder in GTC, has exercised its option to purchase $12.8 million of additional convertible preferred stock under the terms described in the financing agreements approved by GTC shareholders in July 2009.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) has amended its license agreement with Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) as a result of which Ligand is now entitled to receive royalties on net sales of future products from a mineralocorticoid receptor program and a one-time $75,000 payment for providing access to certain patent rights.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:GILD), in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), announced plans for an international, event-driven (morbidity and mortality) clinical trial to study combination therapy versus monotherapy in a first-line treatment setting for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Dendreon Corporation (Nasdaq:DNDN) announced it has completed the submission of the amended Biologics License Application (BLA) for PROVENGE 4; (sipuleucel-T), the Company's lead investigational product, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Dendreon is seeking licensure for PROVENGE for men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Phase Forward (NASDAQ:PFWD), a leading provider of data management solutions for clinical trials and drug safety, announced a contract award to support the FDA’s production rollout of the company’s WebSDM™ Release 3.0 software, including the Empirica™ Study Clinical Trials Signal Detection system.

iMedicor (OTC:VMCI) announced it has received a Scope of Work (SOW) order from its partner, Franklyn Ideas, LLC (Franklyn) on behalf of one of its major pharmaceutical clients.

Walgreens (NYSE:WAG), the nation’s largest drugstore chain with more than 70,000 health service providers, will host its first-ever Diabetes Wellness Events at more than 1,500 stores nationwide in November.

CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) announced it has extended its contract to provide retail pharmacy benefit services and all clinical services for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Government-wide Service Benefit Plan, also known as the Federal Employee Program (FEP).

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) reported third quarter 2009 net sales of $600.2 million, a decrease of 0.3 percent compared to the same period of 2008, primarily reclecting the 780 basis point unfavorable impact from currency fluctuations.

Antares Pharma, Inc. (Amex:AIS) announced it will release its third quarter 2009 financial results after the market closes on Monday, November 9, 2009, and host a conference call shortly thereafter at 4:30 PM (Eastern Time) to discuss the results.

La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (NASDAQ:LJPC) announced its Special Meeting of Stockholders, which was convened on October 30, 2009, was adjourned to November 6, 2009 at 11:00 a.m., local time, at 4225 Executive Square, Suite 495, La Jolla, California.

This is the 1st Quarter 2009 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings series preface. Next up, we have Tremblant Capital Group. Tremblant is a $3 billion hedge fund based in New York and is run by Bret Barakett, who is a former portfolio manager at Moore Capital Management (the hedge fund run by the great Louis Bacon, whom we also track). If the last name of 'Barakett' sounds familiar, its because his brother, Timothy Barakett, manages fellow hedge fund Atticus Capital, whose portfolio we recently covered. Taken from their site, Tremblant Capital Group's objective is "to achieve superior risk adjust returns[More...]

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