Biotech Busine$$ Daily (BNT, TEVA, BPAX, NCST, RPRX, VRTX)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Bentley Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE: BNT) will be purchased by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NASDAQ: TEVA) for $360 million. Bentley shareholders will receive $15 per share and an undisclosed amount of shares in CPEX Pharmaceuticals, a drug-delivery Bentley spin-off. Bentley sells about 130 products in Spain and the transaction will allow Teva to meet its strategic Spain target. Bentley is up 15% to $15.70 on a 52-week range of $8.06 to $15.89. Teva is up marginally, almost 2% to $46.81 on the announcement. Their 52-week range is $35.90 to $50.00.

BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BPAX) announced Friday they are to begin Phase III late stage studies for their “Viagra for Women” treatment, LibiGel, which attempts to remedy a loss of libido in women. Shares are not stimulated, down by $0.55, a 12% drop, to $4.13. The 52-week range is $2.05 to $8.00.

Nucryst Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: NCST) up over by over $0.60, a whopping 60% jump, to $1.64 in mid-day trading on new news. Friday, the stock dropped $0.50 to a new 52-week low. This volatile infection and inflammation biotech company has a 52-week range of $1.01 to $1.85.

Repros Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPRX) reported some interim safety results from its ongoing One-Year open label study of its Proellex(R) for the indicated treatment of uterine fibroids.  Its shares are up 2.4% today.  We just covered this one in our weekly "10 Stocks Under $10" subscriber newsletter this morning ahead of the news.  It’s still under that $10.00 threshold, for now.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) and their hepatitis C competitor, Schering-Plough, released clinical data on their respective drugs today. Schering-Plough’s drug, boceprevir, did not stack up to Vertex’s previously presented similar clinical data, hinting that Schering-Plough may not be as big as a competitor in the market as previously expected. Paired with positive results on Vertex’s drug, the stock is up almost 20% to $22.34 in mid-day trading. The 52-week range is $19.99 to $22.61.

Rachel Lopez
March 31, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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