We have provided the news, a relative analysis on price and volume compared to normal, and added in other color where appropriate.

ARCA biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABIO) was today’s big winner by a mile, or maybe a 1,000 miles.  This rose exponentially on the USPTO issuing a patent on methods of treating heart failure patients with bucindolol based on genetic testing.  This was up a whopping 210% at $8.22 today.  We also saw some 49 million shares trade.  The average volume before today was less than 25,000 shares per day, and even after the jump this has a market cap of only $62.6 million.  Can you say secondary offering coming? Full details are here Or you can see the quest for ten-baggers at BioHealtInvestor.com.

Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) reversed yesterday’s downgrade with an opposite competing call.  Leerink Swann said enough was enough in selling and it Raised the rating to Outperform based on recent share weakness.  Genzyme closed up 3.6% at $53.00 on over 7.8 million shares. There is one issue worth discussing, CEO Henri Termeer could face the firing squad if things do not improve here.

Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOMX) came in even higher than we expected for a share count on its secondary offering. It raised $49.5 million via a 6 million share offering.  The original target was 4 million shares by the company, but we expected 4.5 to 5 million shares would be sold.  This deal was priced at $8.25, but the low of the day was $8.93 and the closing price was down only 4.4% at $9.09 on some 14.9 million shares.

CombinatoRx, Incorporated (NASDAQ: CRXX) spent another day giving back the rest of yesterday’s gains.  This was just continued selling, and shares closed down 8.1% at $1.25 on 4 million shares.

Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) announced that the FDA Advisory Committee on July 15 will review its Qnexa for the treatment of obesity.  This is big news in that it set the date, but the shares saw no surprise from the release.  Shares even closed down 0.2% at $9.34 as some might have hoped for a sooner review.  We did see an intra-day high of $9.74 and the trading volume was actually just a normal day with over 2.6 million shares trading hands.

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (AMEX: INO) is into DNA vaccines focused on cancers and infectious diseases, and it was started with a “Buy” rating at Roth Capital.  Shares closed up 9.76% at $1.35 on over 1.2 million shares (about 3X volume).

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex: INO) has been higher by over 160% for most of the morning.  Investors are following the news reports this morning that its SynCon™ H1N1 influenza DNA vaccines achieved protection against current circulating swine origin influenza A/H1N1 viruses in animal studies. Inovio Biomedical is engaged in the design, development, and delivery of a new generation of DNA vaccines, focused on cancers and infectious diseases.

INO previously reported some interim data from an ongoing study in a pig model where the SynCon™ based H1N1 vaccines achieved hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers above the protection threshold in 100% of the vaccinated animals against the swine influenza virus.

Inovio investigators continued that study and tested the immune sera for responses against a virus isolated from the current circulating strain of swine origin influenza A/H1N1.  All the animals immunized with the SynCon™ H1N1 vaccine developed HI titers exceeding the 1:40 level commonly associated with protective immunity.

In a second study, the investigators immunized mice with the NP and m2E components of the vaccine and challenged these animals with a second related strain also isolated from the current circulating influenza A/H1N1. While all mice showed effects of virus challenge as judged by significant weight loss, the vaccinated mice showed a recovery from virus infection-induced morbidity significantly faster compared to the non-immunized control animals in the study.

In a previous study, the vaccine provided 100% protection in a lethal challenge study against an unmatched H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed over 40 million people worldwide.

The company hopes to create vaccines capable of protecting against emerging pandemic influenza viruses, and noted that the SynCon™ influenza vaccines were developed prior to the emergence of the current swine flu strains. Inovio has created SynCon™ DNA vaccines based on influenza HA, NA, and NP proteins from strains H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1, which make up the majority of seasonal and pandemic influenza.

The company noted that the resulting vaccines could target seasonal as well as pandemic-potential influenza strains such as avian influenza and swine-origin flu.

Inovio shares are indicated up almost 200% around $2.00 right at the 9:30 opening bell.  Its prior 52-week trading range was only $0.15 to $1.11.  Back around the year 2000, this was significantly higher around $30.00 for a short period of time.

Jon Ogg

Jon C. Ogg
June 19, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.