Before distributing the drug, Shanghai Wanxing must also win GMP Certification. The company anticipates that it will begin distribution in the second half of 2007.

The drug produced a statistically significant reduction in symptom scores in a shorter period of time than placebo. Dyax enjoyed a 49% climb, moving up $1.97 to $5.97.

In the letter, Loeb makes several allegations about the $100 million corporate facility that McDade is building in Redwood City to house the PDL operations. Loeb repeatedly called it a “Taj Mahal.” Loeb says that McDade lives close by, and he was sick of commuting through San Francisco and across the bay to Fremont (the letter has a link to a map showing how the corporate move will improve McDade’s commute).

Besides costing the company a lot of money, Loeb says the move will be a disaster for the majority of PDL employees, who live closer to the existing facility. In a corporate report, the auditors expressed a concern about the turnover that will result from the move. Loeb says that a prevailing concern for McDade is the slip for his yacht in the boatyard that adjoins the new facility.

David Katz of Matrix Asset Advisors and Carl Icahn have both been after the company to seek a buyer. MedImmune produces FluMist, an inhaled flu vaccine. MedImmune climbed 15% on the news, rising $5.79 to $43.63.

The Products

Excluding special expenses, Genentech earned $792 million or 74 cps, which was 7 cents above the average expected by analysts. The average estimate of revenue was $2.74 billion. In March, Genentech said it expected U.S. sales to be flat with Q4 of 2006 at $2.05 billion. In after-hours trading, Genentech lost a little ground, moving 39 cents lower to $82.30.

Initially, GSK and Adolor reported an increase in CV adverse events that was not statistically significant. But subsequent analysis showed seven myocardial infarctions in the active drug cohort. Also, 15 neoplasms (benign, malignant, skin cancers and unspecified, including polyps) were found in the active drug arm, against 2 in the placebo group. Four of the 15 were termed serious.

Stratagene markets reagents for life-science research and instruments, employing 400 people world-wide. In 2006, Strategene had revenue of $95.6 million. Stratagene climbed $2.20 to $10.71, an increase of 26%, leaving the company very near the take-out price of $10.94. Agilent was 35 cents higher at $35.06.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) paid $300 million to buy Dabao Cosmetics Co., the largest cosmetics company in China (see story). In 2006, Dabao produced $5.3 million in profit on revenue of $86.7 million, so J&J is paying about 57 times last year’s earnings. The purchase will give J&J entry into the Chinese market for its Neutrogena line of cosmetics. Johnson & Johnson rose 8 cents to $61.63.

In 2006, Dabao produced $5.3 million in profit on revenue of $86.7 million. It has net assets of $59 million. J&J is also in the cosmetics business, as it produces the Neutrogena line of cosmetics.

Dabao, a state-owned company, put itself up for sale earlier this year. By requiring a bank guarantee for the full purchase price, Dabao cut some potential bidders out of running. Avon (AVN), in particular, was thought to be interested, because it was recently allowed to re-introduce its direct selling business model in China, and it lacks the kind of low-price products that are Dubao’s specialty. Dabao also stipulated that bidders have a global presence and registered capital of at least $2.5 billion.

Of particular satisfaction is that biotech did much better than broad market averages, something that has not happened very often lately. The S&P was up only 1.6% and Nasdaq ended the week with a 2% rise. Last week’s jump puts biotech in the top quartile of its 52-week range. It is a solid 13.6% above the lows of last summer, and just 2.8% below the January highs.

That trumps an $85 per share bid from Beckman Coulter (BEC), an offer that was made 10 days ago on March 26. At the time, Biosite management pronounced itself in agreement with the merger. Anticipating still higher bidding, investors moved the price of Biosite up over the $90 per share figure offered by Inverness. During the past 12 months, Biosite produced $112 million of EBITDA on revenues of $309 million.

The Index will include 30 of the largest Chinese companies, weighted using a “modified” market capitalization system. To be considered, a company must have a market capitalization of more than $200 million, trade more than 100,000 shares on average, and be priced at $3 or higher. Companies that are headquartered in Hong Kong will also be considered for inclusion.

BioVeris brings with it the electrochemiluminescence [ECL] technology used in its Elecsys product line, an addition to the Diagnostics subsidiary of Roche that will increase its offerings in the immunochemistry sector. Samuel J. Wohlstadter, Chairman and CEO of BioVeris, will vote his 20% bloc of BioVeris shares in favor of the merger. He will also buy vaccine IP from BioVeris and a non-exclusive license to the ECL technology. BioVeris posted a 52% gain, rising $7.06 to $20.66.

This was better than the interim analysis of 26.2 months and also much longer than the 18.9 months for patients on the current standard of care, Taxotere plus prednisone. Last week, Provenge, the prostate immunotherapy from Dendreon (DNDN), was recommended by the FDA advisory panel after providing a 4.5 month increase in median survival. GVAX is now in a Phase III trial. The news sent Cell Genesys on a 32% climb; it rose $1.39 to $5.70.

The patents covered work done by James A. Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, and it was supported by Geron, so the two entities owned the patents jointly. Thomson first isolated stem cells in 1998.

The two companies signed a deal in 1995, and CTL won approval of the drug in China in 2004 for use against lung cancer. In January 2007, before CTL began marketing the drug, Peregrine sued CTL, saying CTL had breached the terms of the agreement. Peregrine further said it would begin marketing TNT for lung cancer in China. Cancer Therapeutics filed the cross-suit to retain its marketing rights.

THP, which has a German subsidiary, will be integrated into the Roche Pharma Center of Excellence for Protein Research organization in Penzberg, Germany. THP was founded in 2002.

For the entire first quarter, the CBT 200™ was down 44 points or 1.1%, against the backdrop of a slightly higher general market. The broad market indexes eked out gains in the small fractions. Like last year, biotech is trailing the general market slightly, though the tendency is less pronounced this year than in 2006. At its present level, biotech stands 10.3% above its lows of last summer and 5.7% (or 233 points) below the highs of mid-January.

Zelnorm has been approved since 2002. The news took a 4% bite out of Novartis, which fell $2.26 to $54.63.

A subsequent analysis showed that the drug extended median survival by 4.5 months, raising it to 25.9 months from 21.4 months. The result was statistically significant, though the trial, which enrolled just 127 patients, was small. In an even smaller trial, the median survival increased only 3 months, missing the level of statistical significance.

Currently, Dendreon has Provenge in a larger trial, involving 500 patients, which is due to finish in 2010.