December 10, 2006 -- Last week, the Centient Biotech 200™ booked a 1% gain, rising 40 points to 3987 and making an assault at the 4000 mark. Although the CBT 200™ is having trouble making headway this year, big pharma continues to gobble up biotech. Last week, it was GlaxoSmithKline that ponied up $454 million for privately held Domantis. Breadth in biotech was solid last week, given the 1% gain. There were two biotech companies that had spectacular gains: Vanda rose 70% on positive results for schizophrenia drug iloperidone, and Reneuron rocketed 147% higher after asking for permission to begin testing its stem cell-derived treatment for stroke in human patients. Titan was up 51% as it is due a royalty on iloperidone, and Micromet climbed after amending its agreement on a cancer drug with Serono. Two biotech IPOs are scheduled for next week: Affymax and Artes Medical. More details...
