A week to forget
Biotech stocks survived relatively unscathed last week despite a spate of truly bad news. One FDA panel's recommendation for approval of Neurex's Corlopam hypertension treatment on Thursday was not enough to buoy the biotech market after another FDA panel's turndown plus three disappointing Phase III trials earlier in the week. On Monday, the oncology advisory panel voted against approval of Ilex's (ILXO) Zyrkamine for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in AIDS. On Tuesday, Cambridge NeuroScience (CNSI) and Idec (IDPH) both stopped Phase III trials - CNSI in stroke and IDPH in rheumatoid arthritis - only to be followed on Wednesday by Liposome'sdisappointing Phase III data in acute respiratory distress syndrome (see BioCentury Extras, June 24, 25 and 26).
ILXO slipped $3.625 to $14.50 on Monday and closed the week down 12 percent at $16. CNSI tumbled $5.688 to $3.812 on Tuesday and was off 59 percent on the week, closing at $3.968. IDPH slipped $2.625 to $23.25 on Tuesday and was down 10 percent on the week, closing at $23.75...