Stock Commentary - Europe - week to October 15, 2007

EUROPEAN: bourses ended the reporting week to October 15 mixed, with all falling steeply on the last day. Against a 0.1% dip in FRANKFURT's Xetra Dax, Bayer was lifted 3.9% on positive clinical news presented at a medical conference on alemtuzumab, being co-developed with US firm Genzyme (see page 20). Going the opposite way was Stada Arzneimittel, which fell 4.2%, as investors digested the company's decision to restructure, which will involve a one-off charge of 29.0 million euros ($41.3 million), to be booked largely in its third quarter results. ZURICH saw Actelion leap 9.5% ahead of presenting results, after analysts forecast double-digit profit growth for the firm on expectations of strong sales of Tracleer (bosentan) although, after this reporting period, that hope did not materialize. Crucell was up 3.7% on the AMSTERDAM exchange, after announcing a deal with US firm MedImmune which could see it earn milestones of over $40.0 million.

LONDON: saw the best performance of senior European markets, with the FTSE 100 ending 1.6% higher, although the pharmaceutical sector was mixed. Drug majors AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline closed in negative territory, down 0.4% and 3.0%, respectively. GSK was not helped by the previous week's news of an oncology product development deal with USA-based Synta (Marketletter October 15). The UK's third-largest drugmaker, Shire, fell 7.1%, despite announcing a deal to sell non-core products to Spain's Almirall (Marketletter October 15). Leaping forward was little Alizyme, which gained 14.4% on the week, after presenting a well-received update on its Phase III R&D program (see page 21).