Don't look for any of the merger and acquisition talk that has been hovering over the healthcare sector lately to go away. Sanofi-Aventis'(NYSE:SNY) Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher said in an interview late Tuesday that his company will continue “shopping” for acquisitions to build its vaccine, biotechnology, and nonprescription medicine businesses, as well as expand in emerging markets.
“There will be more shopping on the horizon,” Viehbacher said, declining to identify targets to Bloomberg. Purchases must add to the company’s growth, Viehbacher said. According to reports, the company finds vaccines quite attractive because the market will double during the next five years.Speaking of vaccines, forget what we said after Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) closed up 16% after the week's first session. The company, whose vaccines leverage its virus-like particle (VLP) platform technology, looked like it was attempting to rebound after a recent two week skid may have just been taking a breather. While it still looks like a solid long term play, shares have been sliding downward slowly since they announced that they were going to raise capital on September 16. Shares gave up half of their Monday gains and closed at $4.12 -0.29 (-6.58%). It could be that investors playing the pandemic investment sector have opted to move from one cutting edge flu technology to another. Shares of Cel-Sci (AMEX:CVM) have continued rising steadily as small-cap investors are are looking more closely at this company whose H1N1 treatment differentiates them from the usual vaccine and antiviral stock plays. Still, don't look for any representatives from Cel-Sci to seek face time in the media any time soon. CNBC may be spending part of their broadcast day "Tracking the Flu" on Wednesday, but unless there is a last minute change, we're told that Cel-Sci's reps won't be commenting or appearing during the coverage. Multiple reports have company staff and vendors "being stretched to the limits twenty four hours a day" as they rush to continue their work on the Swine Flu treatment's human trials- recently fast tracked by the FDA. At the company headquarters near Washington D.C., the secrecy that has shrouded the new cold-fill lab facility (scheduled to officially go on-line very soon) and their work on this novel treatment option for those already infected with the H1N1 virus continues.ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISTA), who won unanimous support for the approval of their Bepreve drug for the treatment of itchy eyes from the FDA closed as one of the sector's biggest gainers, up to $4.53 +0.28 (6.59%) after a nice write-up in the Motley Fool. The company has more approvals coming down the pipeline and it's investors are feeling very bullish. ISTA is the fourth largest branded ophthalmic pharmaceutical business in the U.S. ISTA’s four marketed products plus its product candidates include therapies for inflammation, ocular pain, glaucoma, allergy, and dry eye. {tiny;AHCI;3} Allied Healthcare International Inc.(NASDAQ:AHCI) 2.87+0.16 (5.90%) has continued thier very quiet yet steady climb that began in early February. Today's close gave them a new 52 week high. Try talking to other investors on forums and chat rooms about the company- if you can find them. Allied is a provider of flexible, or temporary, healthcare staffing to the healthcare industry in the United Kingdom. The Company provides personal or basic care and nursing services in the home, in nursing and care homes and in hospitals. The aging population and other factors may continue to propel them upward. Under a recently announced contract, Allied has the opportunity to deliver up to one thousand four-hundred hours of home care services a week (72,800 hours a year) as one of six providers within Redbridge, a borough of London with a population of 250,000.The biggest loser in the sector, and they've been called worse, is Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNM). Shares lost 39% of their value to close at $ 3.46 -2.23. The diagnostics firm fired a slew of key execs after an investigation revealed mishandled test data. After the market closed on Monday, Sequenom said an investigation by a committee of independent directors revealed that the company "failed to provide adequate protocols and controls" of results for its prenatal Down syndrome blood test. Shares have lost 80% of their value over all during the last year.Here is a look at some of the Healthcare sector's other winners and losers for Tuesday, Sept 29, 2009:
Gainers (% price change)
Last Trade
Change
"While it was always unrealistic to expect continued uninterrupted improvement in economic indicators, in particular as the recovery in some series had broken previous records, the confluence of these negative releases comes at a sensitive time when markets have begun to question underpinnings of the six-month long equity rally and when the sustainability of the broader recovery remains in question," said Michael Hart, a currency strategist for Citigroup, in a note to clients.
In healthcare, shares of Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd.(AMEX:CPD) shot up 20% to $5.09 +0.88, to lead healthcare stocks on Wednesday. The company agreed to a consent decree that allows them to resume operations at its Detroit plant if it receives a written notice from the FDA and independent experts monitoring its compliance with manufacturing regulations. Senomyx Inc.(NASDAQ:SNMX) shares rose to $4.03+0.28 (7.47%) thanks after analyst Andrew Vaino with Roth Capital Partners initiated coverage with a "buy" rating and a 12-month price target of $5. Most biomedical investors had never really heard about the company, because while they are focused on using taste receptor-based assays, they spend most of their time on screening technologies to discover and develop flavors, flavor enhancers and bitter blockers for the packaged food, beverage and ingredient supply industries.Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(NASDAQ:SCMP), a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of its own drugs based on prostones, a class of compounds derived from functional fatty acids that occur naturally in the human body saw it's shares rise modestly to $5.83 +0.31, but on a day when most stocks closed in the red it was good enough to get them into the top 5 gainers list. Two weeks ago they started an internal shuffling of the staff. Shares of the company had traded as high as $7.71 as recently as early August, right before the company posted a quarterly loss and sent shares down a slanting slope to a low of $4.58 a month later when the company withdrew its application to market in Europe its drug for chronic constipation. Shares have been rising unsteadily since then.
Shares of Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc.(NASDAQ:OREX) gained ground Wednesday on positive midstage study data for its obesity drug candidate Empatic. The company said the obesity drug candidate met treatment goals in a midstage study. Empatic reduced the weight of study subjects by 9.9 percent, according to Orexigen. The company filed an SEC form 8-K which you can find here. Shares of VIVUS, Inc.(NASDAQ:VVUS) rose, too, as investors appeared to discount Empatic as a threat to the company's own obesity drug candidate, Qnexa.Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCRX) managed to climb out of a hole early in the day to $8.24+0.06 (0.73%) after the company released news that was met with a bit of skepticism by some experts in the biotech community. According to some on the street, BioCryst had been searching for a deal to raise capital when their stock was trading between the $12 and $13 level, but share prices started to work against them when word of possible dilution leaked and mild fear hit the stock- which has been on a downward slope since. Even a September 21st press release announcing that the company had been awarded an additional $77.2 million modification to it's BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) contract failed to stop the slow downward slide. Those BARDA funds were originally given to the company by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services in 2007 as part of an effort to complete development of Peramivir, an anti-viral agent for the treatment of complicated influenza. While today's news included some quoted references to H1N1, some industry insiders were confused since the studies had been previously described as focusing on patients hospitalized due to "serious influenza" and not just H1N1 (Swine Flu). Dr. Frederick G. Hayden, a virologist at the University of Virginia, said recently that intravenous administration "gives a high concentration in the plasma rapidly and makes a lot of sense." But he added that Peramivir did not appear to work that well against infections resistant to Tamiflu. It will be interesting to see if this news finally breaks the shares out of their descending trend. The company said it will start two trials by the end of this year and they are expected to be complete in mid-2011.Shares of Sequenom, Inc.(NASDAQ:SQNM) may have finally hit bottom at $3.23 -0.23 (-6.65%) since shares started to show some very modest signs of life after hours. After the market closed on Monday, the diagnostics firm fired a slew of key execs after an investigation revealed mishandled test data. Here are the rest of Wednesday's Top Gainers and Losers:
Gainers (% price change)
Last Trade
Change
Mkt Cap
Caraco Pharmaceutical
CPD
5.09
+0.88 (20.90%)
198.97M
Senomyx Inc.
SNMX
4.03
+0.28 (7.47%)
124.60M
The Aristotle Corporation
ARTL
5.73
+0.35 (6.51%)
102.93M
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals
SCMP
5.83
+0.31 (5.62%)
243.95M
3SBio Inc. (ADR)
SSRX
11.00
+0.51 (4.86%)
236.64M
Losers (% price change)
Rockwell Medical Tech
RMTI
7.78
-1.22 (-13.56%)
110.54M
Dyax Corp.
DYAX
3.59
-0.48 (-11.79%)
260.17M
Lannett Company, Inc.
LCI
7.48
-0.76 (-9.22%)
183.39M
Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc
JAZZ
8.02
-0.69 (-7.92%)
248.39M
Sequenom, Inc.
SQNM
3.23
-0.23 (-6.65%)
197.54M
Most Actives (dollar volume)
Pfizer Inc.
PFE
16.52
-0.25 (-1.49%)
111.50B
Wyeth
WYE
48.58
-0.07 (-0.14%)
64.86B
Johnson & Johnson
JNJ
60.89
-0.04 (-0.07%)
167.80B
Merck & Co., Inc.
MRK
31.63
-0.22 (-0.69%)
66.70B
Schering-Plough Corp.
SGP
28.25
+0.12 (0.43%)
46.16B
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