We have included the moves as they have been seen in late-morning trading as well the news and a link to more data on each were applicable if these were more broad stories.

Abraxis BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII) is scoring a win in the war against lung cancer.  Its ABRAXANE showed high promise in combination with existing treatments for lung cancer in key Phase III  studies.  In late-morning trade, Abraxis is up over 28% at $21.18 and it hit a high of $54.03 today.  We have already seen 5-times normal volume.

StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM) is up on news of a rat model patent award in the UK.  This is apparently a novel stem cell patent despite the animal model.  Shares are up 2.5% at $1.24 and we have already seen almost 2 million shares trade versus a 2.1 million share average day.

Xenoport, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNPT) is up 4.5% at $9.57 on no real news seen.  Xenoport is the one that was clocked last month after failing to win FDA support of its restless leg syndrome and after half of its workforce was forced into national employee morale day for layoffs.  Still, if news is out we haven’t seen it today.

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: LXRX) took a beating of almost 10% to close at $1.28 yesterday due to its large securities offering.  Shares have recouped over 2% of that today and the stock is at $1.31 on already 150% of normal trading volume.

As of last night, the week’s offerings were literally a floodgate of secondary offerings. It is almost worrisome when you see this many shares being sold. We have included the appropriate color where applicable, as well as applicable price reactions, comparisons to market cap, the underwriting team on each, and more. The most difficult notion to fathom here is that these are just the decent-sized offerings to large offering from companies which did more than just an automatic shelf registrations. SIXTEEN deals here alone….

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE: CUZ) filed on Tuesday to sell up to $500 million in any combination of Common or Preferred Stock, Warrants, Debt and/or Depositary Shares. The stock held up fine with only a 6.3% drop to $7.85 on Tuesday versus a 52-week range of $5.97 to $10.95. No underwriters were named for the REIT’s securities sale for ‘general corporate purposes’ and the market cap as of Tuesday was $783 million.

Dice Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DHX) registered to sell up to $50 million in common stock for holders, although the prospectus noted common and preferred stock. It also said that any proceeds to the company would be for for ‘general corporate purposes,’ which was inclusive of debt repayment, working capital and/or capital expenditures. Dice shares were down 1.1% to $7.61 n Tuesday and the market cap was about $475 million.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) received approval to pay back its TARP obligations. After earnings last night the credit card issuer said it would be selling $350 million in subordinated debt to repay the TARP. Shares were down 1.5% at $15.07 on early look but that is after earnings and may be only a lesser event in the grand scheme of things.

Entertainment Properties Trust (NYSE: EPR) listed almost 6.3 million shares for sale for a value of close to $250 million in common shares. The difference here is that the offering is said to be dividend reinvestment component and a direct share purchase component shares, so these may actually not be sold… ” 8,500,000 common shares to be offered for purchase under the Plan, including 2,202,093 common shares that were previously registered but not sold.”

Finisar Corp. (NASDAQ: FNSR) filed on Monday to sell 7.2 million shares of common stock. Tuesday brought about a drop down 3.4% to $14.30 on above-average share volume. This one is after a significant recovery because its 52-week trading range is $2.56 to $14.90 and its new market cap was $931 million as of Tuesday’s close. Morgan Stanley and Jefferies & Company are joint book-running managers; Piper Jaffray and Morgan Keegan are co-managers.

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals told investors how well things were going for the company on February 23. The firm bragged about its advances in treatments for type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and carcinoid syndrome. It was a good day for Lexicon investors. Then, today the firm said it would sell $95 million worth of stock without announcing the offering price. As might be anticipated, the shares were pounded. Lexicon trades at $1.62 today, down from a 52-week high of $3.78, so some fortunate investors have lost half of their money.

Poniard Pharmaceuticals had terrible earnings and indicated that the company should have enough money to make it until the end of this year. It is not clear what will happen then. Maybe Poniard will close. The firm works on treatments for prostate and colorectal cancer. In the fourth quarter of last year, Poniard lost $13.2 million and had no revenue. For the entire year, the loss was $46.2 million. Poniard had $46 million in cash on December 31. The company’s situation is not hopeless, but investors fled the stock pushing it down to $1.62 from a 52-week high of $9.14, so some shareholders have lost 80% of their money over the last year.

The two companies have burned investors badly enough so that it will be nearly impossible for them to recovery any market confidence.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) is holding up better than many might guess considering how much it has run up. This is after light earnings.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) is fairly close to 52-week highs after signing three partnerships for Peramivir for influenza outside the U.S.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is down but only marginally on reports of a ‘possible’ stake sale by The U.S. Government.

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: (DNDN) is giving back a portion of yesterday’s gains on merger rumors.

ING Group (NYSE: ING) will be an active ADR today after the EU may block a settlement.

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: LXRX) is surging as a top bio-winner after moving to Phase 2 clinical trial of LX4211 in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is soaring to highs not seen since July on yet another upgrade.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for top day trader alerts, top analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG
September 15, 2009

The initial stage of the trial will assess the bioavailability of a new oral-suspension formulation in healthy elderly subjects with a second stage evaluating safety, tolerability and cognitive effects in elderly subjects with age-associated memory impairment.

This was issued ahead of its R&D webcast at Noon EST today.  Shares have not traded in pre-market trading and closed at $3.20 yesterday; its 52-week trading range is $2.80 to $4.40.

Jon C. Ogg
December 5, 2007

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

Jon C. Ogg
June 18, 2007

Simultaneously, Lexicon announced it has entered into a $60 million product development collaboration with Symphony Capital Partners, L.P. and its co-investors ("Symphony") to move its first three drug candidates into advanced clinical development:

-LX6171 for cognitive disorders, currently completing Phase 1b;
-LX1031 for irritable bowel syndrome, currently in Phase 1b;
-LX1032 for gastrointestinal disorders, currently in preclinical development.

Back in 2000, this stock traded north of $40.00, then traded to under $10.00 in 2001, and the stock slid lower and lower to around $3.00 recently.  This is the sort of investment news that brings biotech zombies back to life.  Lexicon had a market cap of $241 million as of Friday’s close, and it had just over $59.5 million in cash and equivalents and more than $98 million in total liabilities as of its most recent quarter.  Below are the details of each transaction from the press release:

FROM INVUS:

Invus has received warrants to purchase 16.4 million shares of Lexiconcommon stock, for a per share purchase price of $3.09, the ten-dayvolume weighted average as of June 14, 2007. Upon shareholder approval,Invus will purchase, at that price, the number of shares that remainsubject to the warrants, and the warrants will terminate. Invus alsowill purchase approximately 20.4 million additional shares of commonstock which, when added to the shares already owned by Invus, willbring Invus’ ownership to 40% of the post-transaction outstandingshares of common stock. The purchase price for these additional 20.4million shares will be $4.50, a 46% premium over the Friday, June 15th,2007 closing price of $3.08.

To assure long-term adequate financing, Invus will have the right torequire the company to initiate up to two rights offerings, which wouldprovide all shareholders with pro rata rights to acquire additionalcommon stock in an aggregate amount not to exceed $345 million. Thefirst rights offerings may be initiated, subject to certainadjustments, beginning 27 months from the closing of the initialinvestment, and the second rights offering may be initiated beginning12 months after the initiation of the first, or 39 months from theclosing of the initial investment if the first rights offering does nottake place. The initial investment and subsequent rights offerings aredesigned to achieve up to approximately $550 million in proceeds toLexicon. Invus would participate in the rights offering for up to itspro rata portion of the offering, and would commit to purchase theentire portion of the offering not subscribed for by other stockholders.

As part of its agreement with Invus, Lexicon will have the right toissue common stock before the commencement of the rights offerings at aprice above $4.50 per share. Such offerings will reduce the totalamount required to be raised under the rights offerings. Invus willhave the right to participate in future equity issuances by the companyso as to maintain its percentage ownership of the company. Invus willalso agree to customary standstill restrictions that will not apply tothe rights offerings and will have other exceptions. Invus will haveinitially three members on the Lexicon board of directors, which willbe expanded from eight to eleven members.

The transaction will be submitted to Lexicon stockholders for approval at a meeting planned for August or September.

FROM SYMPHONY:

Under the terms of the $60 million Symphony transaction, $45 millionhas been provided to Symphony Icon, Inc., a newly-created company thatwas established to accelerate development of Lexicon’s first threeproduct candidates and hold the license to the intellectual property ofLX6171, LX1031 and LX1032. An additional $15 million of equity capitalwas provided directly to Lexicon for general corporate purposes.

Through a purchase option, Lexicon retains the exclusive right, but notthe obligation, to acquire 100% of the equity of Symphony Icon atexercise prices that range from $72 million in the second year up to$90 million in the fourth year of the collaborative development period.The option exercise may be paid in cash or a combination of cash andLexicon common stock at Lexicon’s sole discretion. If Lexicon choosesnot to exercise the purchase option, Symphony Icon will retain therights to the three programs. In exchange for the purchase option and$60 million of funding, Lexicon issued approximately 7.7 million sharesof Lexicon common stock to Symphony Icon’s investors at a purchaseprice of $3.14, the ten-day closing price average as of June 12, 2007.The collaboration is intended to last up to four years.

Jon C. Ogg
June 18, 2007

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