BioHealth Morning Daily, Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Cepheid Inc. (NASDAQ: CPHD) received FDA clearance for the first on-demand diagnostic test for life threatening MRSA and staphylococcus aureus from patient positive blood cultures. No shares have traded yet.
Emergent Biosolutions, Inc. (NYSE: EBS) announced that the U.S. government will purchase an additional 14.5 million doses of BioThrax as part of the anthrax shield under a new contract valued at up to $404 million. Its market cap is $390 million and its 2007 revenues were $182.9 million in total.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) won a rather large judgment after a U.S. District Court in Delaware entered a final judgment including accrued interest, which comes to approximately $1.2 billion in favor of J&J’s Cordis unit. It won this against Medtronic (MDT) and Boston Scientific (BSX) in cases involving the original balloon expandable stent patent.
Universal Health (NYSE: UHS) is among some hospital downgrades by UBS this morning. It seems that the hospital sector is not immune from a rapidly weakening economy. Its rating was cut to Neutral from Buy. FULL HOSPITAL DOWNGRADE LIST.
Jon Ogg
October 1, 2008
Analysts Weighing In On BioHealth Stocks (AUXL, AVRX, CPHD, MEND, AMED)
These are some of the analyst calls impacting biotech, medical, and healthcare stocks right at the open this Thursday morning:
- Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (AUXL) Cut to Neutral from BUY at B of A.
- Avalon Pharma (AVRX) Cut to Hold from Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.
- Cepheid (CPHD) Cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
- Micrus Endovascular (MEND) Started as Hold at Needham & Co.
Amedisys (AMED) Raised to Outperform from Mkt Perform By Wachovia… more into home based healthcare and hospice, but involves caring for the aged and ill.
Jon C. Ogg
August 14, 2008