no one way - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[dosto]

CNCT crushed on heavy volume (CNCT) by Michael Baron
Connetics (CNCT) is being decimated in early action, plummeting $19.81, or 77.7 percent, to $5.69, on heavy volume of 3.32 million shares. Average daily volume is 310,800. Before Monday`s opening bell, the Palo Alto, Calif., biopharmaceutical firm said its phase III trial of recombinant human relaxin in the treatment of diffuse systemic sclerosis, also known as scleroderma, did not meet its primary endpoint. As a result, Connetics said it will not file a biologics licensing application for relaxin in the treatment of scleroderma. However, the company will continue its relaxin clinical development programs in vascular diseases and infertility.

[dosto]

10:10AM BioCryst hits 6-year low (BCRX, JNJ) by Tomi Kilgore
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) is plunging $9.44, or 62 percent, to $5.75. The stock hit an intraday low of $4.25, the lowest level seen since September 1994. The company said it was notified on Wednesday that, "due solely to logistical considerations," The R.W. Johnson Research Institute will not initiate clinical studies in the Northern Hemisphere for influenza neuraminidase inhibitor in elderly patients. The company added that it expected to proceed with Phase III studies during this flu season. BioCryst is also working with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) on its flu program. JNJ`s stock is slipping $1.19 to $94.81.

[dosto]

Lilly, Sepracor scrap improved Prozac

By Stephanie O`Brien, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 8:50 AM ET Oct 19, 2000 NewsWatch
Latest headlines

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Shares of Sepracor lost almost half their value in trading before the market opened Thursday after Eli Lilly & Co. said it scrapped development of an improved version of the anti-depressant Prozac it had been developing with the company.

Sepracor (SEPR: news, msgs) shares dropped $51.81 to $69.00 in recent trading. See Indications.

In a statement, Lilly (LLY: news, msgs) said it reviewed available clinical data that showed the drug, (R)-fluoxetine, increased irregular heartbeat at the highest dose tested. Lilly said that while the increase was small, it was statistically significant. The drug maker said that while it believes the data show a clinically insignificant effect, studying the drug at a lower dose would delay filing for approval to market it for at least two years.

Lilly said it would return existing scientific data to Sepracor.

Wasserstein-Perella analyst Adam Greene said it was "pointless" for Lilly to continue to develop the drug given such a delay, since generic competition for Prozac will enter the marketplace much sooner.

In August, the shares of both Lilly and Sepracor suffered steep declines after a court ruled that one of Lilly`s Prozac patents was invalidated by an appeals court. Lilly stock lost about a third of its value after a U.S. appeals court upheld a lower court`s decision enabling competitors to sell generic forms of its wildly popular anti-depressant. Sepracor stock also witnessed double-digit declines in the wake of that news.

In the statement, Sepracor said that given the risk and timing of the development of (R)-fluoxetine, and following an assessment of the competitive environment, the company has decided not to pursue the drug`s development for the time being.


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Stephanie O`Brien is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com.

[faserland]

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