EUROPEAN: bourses started the reporting week to September 18 with a strong rebound and, despite some ups and downs, all those reported ended the period with gains. ZURICH was strong, with a 6% rise for Serono, which came ahead of the unexpected 10.6 billion-euro ($13.5 billion) offer for the company from Germany's Merck on the morning of September 21. Actelion put on 2.8% and Novartis gained 2.1%, while fellow drug major Roche dipped 0.3%, still suffering from the news that the US Food and Drug Administration had called for additional information before approving a new indication for its majority-owned subsidiary Genentech's Avastin (bevacizumab; Marketletter September 18). In FRANKFURT, Merck KGaA gained 3.6%, reversing its previous week's fall, but again this had nothing to do with its bid for Serono which came after this reporting period and caused the stock to drop over 6%. News was still awaited from Altana on the fate of its pharmaceutical business, with the speculation still that Denmark's Nycomed would be the buyer for this unit, albeit at a price below market expectations.
LONDON: share prices moved in a narrow range, with the FTSE 100 up just 0.7% overall. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline fell 1.6% ahead of the weekend, when clinical trial data was awaited on its diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone; see page 19), but the stock picked up slightly on September 18 and was down just 0.7% week-on-week. Little Acambis was the star performer, rising 10.5%, after the firm reported results, with an increased loss but news of a $30.0 million order for its ACAM200 smallpox vaccine from the US government (see page 6).
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Stock Commentary - Europe - week to Sept 18, 2006
EUROPEAN: bourses started the reporting week to September 18 with a strong rebound and, despite some ups and downs, all those reported ended the period with gains. ZURICH was strong, with a 6% rise for Serono, which came ahead of the unexpected 10.6 billion-euro ($13.5 billion) offer for the company from Germany's Merck on the morning of September 21. Actelion put on 2.8% and Novartis gained 2.1%, while fellow drug major Roche dipped 0.3%, still suffering from the news that the US Food and Drug Administration had called for additional information before approving a new indication for its majority-owned subsidiary Genentech's Avastin (bevacizumab; Marketletter September 18). In FRANKFURT, Merck KGaA gained 3.6%, reversing its previous week's fall, but again this had nothing to do with its bid for Serono which came after this reporting period and caused the stock to drop over 6%. News was still awaited from Altana on the fate of its pharmaceutical business, with the speculation still that Denmark's Nycomed would be the buyer for this unit, albeit at a price below market expectations.
LONDON: share prices moved in a narrow range, with the FTSE 100 up just 0.7% overall. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline fell 1.6% ahead of the weekend, when clinical trial data was awaited on its diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone; see page 19), but the stock picked up slightly on September 18 and was down just 0.7% week-on-week. Little Acambis was the star performer, rising 10.5%, after the firm reported results, with an increased loss but news of a $30.0 million order for its ACAM200 smallpox vaccine from the US government (see page 6).
This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free. A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.
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