On a volatile day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI ) fell nearly 250 points as the feckless Congressional supercommittee left no doubt that partisan intransigence would supersede any debt deal, significantly large moves happened in the health-care sector. For instance, a week after after announcing the elimination of its stem-cell program, Geron
Let's focus on three biotechs that made moves because of breaking news.
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals
Speaking of which, Pharmasset
Gilead is getting PSI-7977, an oral treatment that doesn't require interferon injections and their nasty side effects. Oral-drug candidates such as Pharmasset's PSI-7977, Inhibitex's INX-189, and Achillion's ACH-1625 are the potential future backbone of drug cocktails used for attacking hepatitis C. Gilead has a host of hep-C drugs in its pipeline, and its work with HIV shows that it's adept at creating effective drug combinations. The multibillion-dollar race for hepatitis C treatment supremacy is well under way.
Finally, Regeneron
The best way to track the latest developments surrounding the companies mentioned above is to add them to our free My Watchlist feature:
- Add Pharmasset to My Watchlist.
- Add Gilead Sciences to My Watchlist.
- Add Vertex to My Watchlist.
- Add Spectrum Pharmaceuticals to My Watchlist.
- Add Regeneron to My Watchlist.
- Add Geron to My Watchlist.
- Add Alexa Pharmaceuticals to My Watchlist.
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