Ebb & Flow

Those who took a break to catch a Fourth of July fireworks show would have seen more spectacular blowups had they remained glued to their Quotrons. Indeed, biotech stocks put on a pyrotechnics show last week that everyone would like to forget, as the BioCentury 100 Index fell 10%.

Alkermes (ALKS) and Tripos (TRPS) started off the first week of the third quarter with plunges of more than 60% on Monday. ALKS fell $10.86 (68%) to $5.15 on 22.2 million shares after partner Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) received a non-approvable letter from the FDA for its Risperdal Consta long-acting injection to treat schizophrenia. The pharma company said FDA had questions related to preclinical data. Risperdal Consta is a formulation of JNJ's Risperdal that uses ALKS's Medisorb drug delivery technology (see Product Development, A6). ...