Shire buoyed by Alzheimer's

Shire Pharmaceuticals Group (LSE:SHP) is the only U.K. bioscience stock on the London Stock Exchange to be trading anywhere near its 52-week high. The explanation is fairly simple: the market is enamored with the company's progress with its Reminyl galantamine, a second generation acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor being developed to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Preliminary results of a placebo-controlled Phase III pan-European trial, unveiled at the company's recent annual meeting, indicate what the company said are "highly significant" improvements in cognition among patients receiving the drug...