Biotech market roars
The biotech market charged forward Thursday on the heels of big moves in the discovery group that were driven by Wednesday's announcement of the NIH's guidelines for NIH-funded human pluripotent stem cell research (see BioCentury Extra, Wednesday Aug. 23). The BioCentury 100 added 4 percent on Thursday, outpacing a 1 percent move by the tech-laden NASDAQ Composite and a 0.3 percent gain in the Dow Jones Industrials.
Companies conducting stem cell research - including Geron (GERN), StemCells (STEM) and Aastrom (ASTM)- were the biggest percentage gainers, all moving up more than 20 percent on the day. GERN, which has a research program that generates pluripotent stem cells from human embryos, was up $6.188 (24 percent) to $31.688 on Thursday, after a $1.125 move to $25.50 on Wednesday. ASTM, which is developing stem cell therapies for cancer, added $1.594 (59 percent) to $4.281 on 19.9 million shares on Thursday, following a $1.125 (72 percent) rise to $2.688 on 9 million shares on Wednesday. STEM, which is developing stem cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the central nervous system, pancreas and liver, popped $2.281 (31 percent) to $9.656 on 10.3 million shares on Thursday after adding $2 (37 percent) to $7.375 on 5.6 million shares on Wednesday. ...