Drug stocks end with gain, biotechs slip

Drug stocks ended Thursday in positive territory while a Food and Drug Administration panel met to discuss the safety review of 16 drugs in children.
The FDA panel will make recommendations that may include changes to some of the drugs' labels.
The drugs being discussed range from Wyeth's Rapamune, which helps to prevent the rejection of kidney transplants, to Abbott Laboratories's HIV treatment Norvir and Pfizer Inc.'s cholesterol drug Lipitor.

Shares of GlaxoSmithKline PLC ended the session with a slight gain. The FDA gave priority review to Tykerb for use in connection with Xeoloda to treat metastatic or advanced breast cancer in women who have received prior therapy.

Industry bellwether Merck & Co. Inc.'s shares ended up more than 1%. The drugmaker said it has inked an agreement with India's Advinus Therapeutics Ltd. for the development of drug candidates for metabolic disorders.
Zoll Medical Corp. shares, meanwhile, rocketed higher by more than 28% after the maker of resuscitation devices and software reported fiscal fourth-quarter net earnings of $5.4 million, or 55 cents a share, up from $2.24 million, or 23 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $72.3 million from $57.1 million.
The DJ Wilshire Pharmaceuticals Index added 16.54 points to close at 2360.65. The DJ Wilshire Biotechnology Index, meanwhile, slipped 2.30 points to close at 3269.19.

Shares of Dendreon Corp. ended down 11% after the company said it has agreed to sell 9.89 million shares to institutional investors for $45 million, before deducting fees and expenses.

But shares of Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. closed with a more than 5% rise after being upgraded to peer perform from underperform at Bear Stearns. The brokerage firm said the regulatory strategy for the company's insomnia drug candidate, Indiplon, removes an overhang on the stock.