Antril, ready or not

Fasten your seat belts and step onto the Synergen Inc. roller-coaster. The consensus among the biotech watchers has long been that the company's presentation of its Phase III Antril data will be the event of the year for the group. And, like it or not, everyone has a ticket for the ride.

Now that the March or April due date is nigh, and the company is crunching the data, nervous investors will try to read meaning into the company's every tic, while speculators will try to reap advantage from every rumor. The first harbinger was two weeks ago, when a hoaxter, who claimed to have participated in the Antril trials, called several publications to say the drug didn't work. The affair cost the stock $5.25. SYGN, which closed Friday at $51.25, is down $9.75 in the last two weeks...