BioHealth Business Daily (ABII, STEM, XNPT, LXRX, MIPI, LLY, GTXI, SHPGY, JAZZ)

We are seeing many key movers in the BioHealth space today.  Biotech stocks and drug stocks are often more volatile than other sectors.  Today’s BioHealth Business Daily includes the key moves and news seen in Abraxis BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII), StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM), Xenoport, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNPT), Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: LXRX), Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPI), Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: ELY), GTX Inc. (NASDAQ: GTXI), Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY) and Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAZZ).

We have included the moves as they have been seen in late-morning trading as well the news and a link to more data on each were applicable if these were more broad stories.

Abraxis BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII) is scoring a win in the war against lung cancer.  Its ABRAXANE showed high promise in combination with existing treatments for lung cancer in key Phase III  studies.  In late-morning trade, Abraxis is up over 28% at $21.18 and it hit a high of $54.03 today.  We have already seen 5-times normal volume.

StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM) is up on news of a rat model patent award in the UK.  This is apparently a novel stem cell patent despite the animal model.  Shares are up 2.5% at $1.24 and we have already seen almost 2 million shares trade versus a 2.1 million share average day.

Xenoport, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNPT) is up 4.5% at $9.57 on no real news seen.  Xenoport is the one that was clocked last month after failing to win FDA support of its restless leg syndrome and after half of its workforce was forced into national employee morale day for layoffs.  Still, if news is out we haven’t seen it today.

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: LXRX) took a beating of almost 10% to close at $1.28 yesterday due to its large securities offering.  Shares have recouped over 2% of that today and the stock is at $1.31 on already 150% of normal trading volume.

Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPI) is down considerably this morning after noting a ‘going concern’ note just yesterday.  Shares are down over 17% at $1.38 on the day.

Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: ELY) is large enough that this might be nothing more than a PR blunder.  Still, thieves stole as much as $75 million worth of the company’s drugs from a Connecticut warehouse over the weekend.  During or after the weekend storms in the Northeast, thieves disabled a burglar alarm in the building and left with dozens of pallets loaded with the antidepressants Prozac and Cymbalta, as well as the anti-psychotic Zyprexa and other prescriptions.  They must be happy thieves, or at least no longer care.  With a $40 billion market cap and with Thomson Reuters having 2010 sales estimates of almost $23.3 billion, shares are basically flat at $36.20.

And there are a couple of analyst calls impacting shares as well.  GTX Inc. (NASDAQ: GTXI) is down 2.6% at $3.34 this morning. Rodman & Renshaw decided today was a good day to downgrade the stock to “Underperform” from Market Perform.”  Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY) is down 1.75% at $66.13 on more than a whole day’s volume after Citigroup cut the company to a “Sell” rating down from a “Buy” rating it previously had.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAZZ) is up strong on two issues. TheStreet.com via Real Money ‘bought shares’ and the company is presenting data at an upcoming Barclays conference.

JON C. OGG