December 15, 2005 -- Merck announced another $1 billion in cost savings, and also introduced a new cardiovascular drug that raises HDL and cuts triglycerides; the announcement had a negative effect on Kos Pharma, which has a competing drug; Somaxon completed its IPO, pricing its offering at $11; Cyclacel of Scotland will merge with Xcyte Therapies; separately, Xcyte sold its T cell expansion technology to Invitrogen for $5 million; GTx reported that Acapodene increased bone mineral density in men with prostate cancer; Immunomedics published results of pre-clinical work on its antibody fusion protein; and GlycoGenesys reported data about its cancer drug. Helped by the almost 5% rise in the value of Amgen, the Centient Biotech 200™ rose 40 points to 3989.01, a gain of 1.01%. More details...
