BioHealth Business Daily (CELG, DUSA, ENCO, KERX, NPSP, OSIP, PFE, PURE, RNN, SQNM)

There are more recognized stocks in today’s edition of the BioHealth Business Daily.  We are seeing significant and unusual moves, or implications, in shares of Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUSA), Encorium Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENCO), Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: KERX), NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: NPSP), OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIP), Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE), PURE Bioscience (NASDAQ: PURE), Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMEX: RNN), and Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM).

We have outlined the news and the impact, volume and relative moves, and added in color on each where appropriate.

Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) is up ahead of tomorrow’s R&D day for the first time.  We outlined this in full at InvestorPlace, but the other thing to consider is a potential stock split.  Shares are up almost 1% at $63.92.

DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUSA) is a mystery move other than a large block trade, which may be enough to whip it around since average volume is barely 60,000 shares.  Shares are now up 17.7% at $2.06 on 475,000 shares.  This marks a 52-week high as well and the new 52-week range is $0.88 to $2.06.

Encorium Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENCO) continues to be a puzzle…. Shares are up 13% at $3.48 on 1.8 million shares.  This is the new micro-cap stock for day traders looking for those ten-baggers.  The market cap is a mere $11.43 million.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: KERX) is up after an analyst praised it in a “Wall Street Transcript” interview.  Shares are up 4.7% at $3.33 on 2.6 million shares (almost 150% normal volume) and the 52-week range is $0.14 to $3.56.

NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: NPSP) is higher after Needham & Co. began coverage today with a BUY rating.  Shares are up 2.7% at $5.25 on 300,000 shares (over 150% normal volume).

OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIP) may seem boring and not worthy of coverage today on the surface.  However, Joe Kunkle of OptionsHawk.com pointed out an unusual trade in options confirming some of our concerns that the Astellas $52 offer may not ever get above the $60 price seen in the quest for a higher buyout.

Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE) was one of the most active stocks today.  This is after it said  it will design drugs for Asia prevalent diseases and after MicuRx Pharmaceuticals and Cumencor Pharmaceuticals said they are collaborating with Pfizer to develop antibiotics for drug-resistant tuberculosis in China. Shares are up 0.85% at $17.11 on over 50 million shares while the broad market has spent most of the day in the red.

PURE Bioscience (NASDAQ: PURE) is seeing a day-two event after yesterday’s run after the EPA approved its SDC-based disinfectant and food contact surface sanitizer.  Again, this is no biotech, but it will hopefully keep illness and contamination down and help us all avoid medicine needed to treat cross food contamination.  Shares are up 50% today at $3.04 on a whopping 13 million shares and now the market cap is north of $100 million.  Today’s high is a 52-week high of $3.74.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMEX: RNN) is trading higher after it said that it is preparing to initiate Phase II tests of Serdaxin, an experimental drug aimed to treat Parkinson’s disease.  Shares are up almost 22% at $2.18 on over 4 million shares of stock (about 300% of normal volume).

Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) was given a new nickname of ‘Squash-ya-nom’ based on  Wedbush initiating coverage of the troubled stock with a Underperform rating and it gave a whopping $0.50 target.  That is a far cry from the exponential upside called for just last week in a competing research call.

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JON C. OGG