Stock Commentary - Europe - week to Feb 9, 2009

EUROPEAN: bourses followed Wall Street into recovery, with most of the markets tracked witnessing a significant turnaround in the reporting  period to February 9. ZURICH saw a sharp 9.1% decline for Roche, as  the firm proceeded with its now hostile takeover attempt for US  affiliate Genentech which, after this reporting week, stated it could  accept a bid of $112 a share, not the $86.50 offered. The Swiss drug  major also revealed that 2008 net income had fallen 5% and said growth  would slow this year. UCB advanced 7.3% on the BRUSSELS exchange, on  the news that the US regulatory authority had not called for additional  data relating to the clearance of its rheumatoid arthritis drug Cimzia  (certolizumab pegol; see page 22). In PARIS, Ipsen gained 9.8%, after  posting strong results, which were boosted by new product launches in  the USA (Marketletter February 9), while Sanofi-Aventis was little  changed, up just 0.6%, before presenting financials (see page 11). DSM  leapt 15.8% in AMSTERDAM, despite announcing that its proposed sales of  DSM Special Products BV to Arsenal Capital Partners would not proceed.

LONDON: drug share prices were mixed, with a staggering 52.5% jump for  little Sinclair Pharma, after the firm revealed that it is  strengthening its sales and marketing operation in Spain by acquiring  the remaining shares of Laboratorios Novo Pharma and creating a new,  fully-owned operating company called Sinclair Pharma Espana. Among the  drug majors, AstraZeneca was down 4%, following the firm saying that  full-year 2009 sales were expected to be flat (Marketletter February  9), while GlaxoSmithKline edged just 0.3% higher on posting results (see  page 5).