December 7, 2005 -- Rigel Pharmaceuticals released positive data from presentations to be made at the ASH convention about an anemia drug candidate and a treatment for leukemia; Abbott Labs received FDA approval for Depakote ER as a treatment for bipolar disorder; Antigenics announced a layoff of 32% of its staff; Sunesis Pharma received a $500,000 milestone from Biogen Idec for discovering a Raf Kinase inhibitor to treat cancer; Amgen authorized another $5 billion stock buyback; Dendreon moved sharply lower after placing 10 million shares in a secondary offering at $4.50; Viropharma gained after completing a 9 million share secondary offering at $16.75; GlaxoSmithKline received permission to go ahead with its proposed takeover of ID Biomedical; and the third largest biotech company in Europe, Ipsen, made its IPO. The Centient Biotech 200™ was down 14 points at 3957.54, a loss of .35%. More details...
