March 6, 2005 -- From the get-go, last week was tough on biotech. Bad news dominated, with stories about side-effects trumping FDA approvals or positive data from clinical trials. Just before the bell rang to open Monday’s trading, Biogen Idec and Elan stunned the biotech world by announcing they would withdraw their highly regarded, recently introduced MS drug, Tysabri, from the market. The Centient Biotech 200(tm) lost 4.25% on the day and never recovered. For the week, the index lost a huge 4.54%--which is equivalent to 152 points-leaving the index at its low point so far this year, a level of 3195.52. The biotech company that did the best for the week was Serono, which offers Rebif, a drug that competes with Tysabri in the MS market. Otherwise, the big news was on the downside, with Biogen Idec and Elan leading, and Cytogen also losing a huge amount after failing to win a recommendation from an FDA advisory panel. The good news last week? A more or less successful IPO from Aspreva, a Canadian biotech...
