November 11, 2005 -- In a step forward for personalized medicine, deCODE Genetics isolated a gene whose presence increases the risk of heart attack among African-Americans by 250%; Oxxon Therapeutics released positive data from a Phase IIa trial of its therapeutic vaccine treating hepatitis B; Idenix said Volopicitabine increased the effect of pegylated interferon in a Phase IIb trial among hepatitis C patients; Viventia Biotech received Fast Track designation for Proxinium as a head & neck cancer treatment; Viropharma recovered some of its 18% drop on Thursday, which was caused by fears of generic competition for Vancocin; the shares of Andrx fell after Abbott Labs received an injunction preventing Andrx from making a cheaper version of Biaxin XL, an antibiotic; and Johnson & Johnson will add a warning to its contraceptive patch at the behest of the FDA. Although the Centient Biotech 200™ was up only a fairly modest 15 points, it was enough to score a new all-time high for the index. The CBT 200™ closed at 3934.24, eclipsing the old high of 3924, an increase of .38% on the day. More details...
