Biotech Relypsa (RLYP) soared in afternoon trading Friday as reports spread that it was nearing a sale. Shortly before noon, Street Insider quoted an anonymous source saying that Merck (MRK) was about to make an offer for Relypsa for an unknown price. About an hour and a half later, the Financial Times reported that its own anonymous source said that Relypsa was merely starting the process without a particular buyer, though GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Big biotech Amgen (AMGN) was trading up Friday after it announced a cancer collaboration with Merck (MRK) and filed for its first biosimilar approval, despite a tepid initiation report from Wells Fargo. Amgen and Merck said that they are launching a study combining Merck’s Keytruda, which is currently used to treat melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer, with Amgen’s leukemia drug Blincyto, in a study of patients with diffuse large B-cell
Big pharmas Merck (MRK), Eli Lilly (LLY) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) were trading up Tuesday after getting upgrades from Barclays, while AbbVie (ABBV) seesawed on a downgrade. Analyst Geoff Meacham assumed coverage of a newly combined U.S. Pharmaceuticals sector in Barclays’ coverage, and while he left most ratings the same he made a few tweaks. Lilly was upgraded to overweight from equal weight, and its price target lifted to 95 from 75, based on