February 6, 2005 Last week, the Centient Biotech 200 pushed significantly higher, gaining 141 points to 3482.48, a stunning 4.2% rise. Friday’s closing prices gave the index its highest weekly close of the year. At this level, the CBT 200 is now down only 2.7% on the year (it lost 3.2% during the first week). Currently, it stands 12.1% above its lows of last summer and 7.4% below the highs of last spring. All of this new-found optimism did not translate into a good market for biotech IPOs--Favrille, Threshold, and Icagen all fared poorly in their trading debuts. This week, AlgoRx Pharma and Peninsula Pharma are slated to come to market. Maybe they can do better. We also discuss the stories behind the awe-inspiring gains of New River, the mysterious rise in Aphton, the solid contract that Martek signed, and the clinical trials for a pneumonia drug from Immetch...
