NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Shares Accelr8 more than doubled in the month of February, as the firm disclosed mid-month that its technology evaluation agreement with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics has been extended to June 30, 2011.
As part of that pact, the firm said as of Jan. 31, it has received an aggregate amount of roughly $640,000 from Novartis, and it anticipates receiving "not less than $140,000 more pursuant to these agreements."
Accelr8 was by the far the biggest gainer among stocks last month in the GenomeWeb Daily News Index. Several firms had low double-digit increases, as many companies in the Index reported their fourth-quarter and full-year 2010 financial results.
Among those firms were Beckman Coulter (+15 percent), which is in the process of being acquired by Danaher for $6.8 billion, Genomic Health (+13 percent), Qiagen (+12 percent), Cepheid (+12 percent), Luminex (+11 percent), and Bruker (+10 percent).
The decliners for the month were led by Rosetta Genomics and Vermillion, which both fell more than 30 percent.
Rosetta's shares fell after the company said that it would issue more than 7.9 million shares of common stock in concurrent private placement and registered direct offerings aimed at raising $6 million.
Vermillion also raised money during February, selling 4 million shares of common stock at $5.45 per share, bringing in net proceeds of around $20.2 million.
Overall, the GWDN Index rose 3 percent in February, matching the gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq. The Nasdaq Biotech index was up 1 percent for the month.
