Top Health Care Stocks
JNJ +0.53%
PFE +0.19%
ABT +0.45%
MRK +0.96%
AMGN -0.16%
Health care stocks were narrowly higher Wednesday, including a slightly more than 0.3% gain for the NYSE Health Care Index in recent trading. Also, shares of health care companies in the S&P 500 were up over 0.2% as a group while the Nasdaq Biotechnology index was falling about 0.4%.
Among health care stocks moving on news:
(+) Galapagos ( GLPG ) rose to a record high on Wednesday, climbing over 18% to a best-ever $121.60 a share, after releasing encouraging phase III results for its filgotinib investigational treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The data showed filgotinib reached its primary endpoint in the proportion achieving a 20% response on an American College of Rheumatology scale, while the number of patients achieving a 50% or 70% response and clinical remission was significantly higher compared with patients who received a placebo.
In other sector news:
(+) Bausch Health Cos (BCH,BCH.TO) advanced almost 17% on Wednesday, topping out at $24.10 a share after saying it has settled its legal fight with Actavis Laboratories FL over its Xifaxan 550 mg tablets without having to make a payment in exchange for allowing Actavis to market a generic form of the gastrointestinal drug starting in January 2028, or a year before Bausch's patent on the drug expires.
(-) EyePoint Pharmaceuticals ( EYPT ) dropped as much as 7% on Wednesday after the ophthalmic drugmaker saw its fiscal Q4 net loss widen to $0.62 per share from a loss of $0.16 per share during the same quarter last year and missing the single-analyst call expecting an $0.11 per share loss. Revenue rose to $715,000 from $701,000 last year, exceeding the Capital IQ consensus by $25,000.