Health care stocks were mostly higher this afternoon, with the NYSE Health Care Index and the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF (XLV) both rising 1.5%.
The Nasdaq Biotechnology index was climbing 1.4%.
In company news, Chimerix (CMRX) was up almost 12% after announcing a new contract worth up to $25.3 million to provide its Tembexa smallpox medication to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The deal is expected to close ahead of Chimerix' planned $315 million sale of Tembexa rights to Emergent BioSolutions (EBS).
Bausch Health Companies (BHC) rose nearly 20% after the eye-care company said CEO Joseph Papa resigned his seat on its board of directors despite a positive vote Tuesday that saw shareholders returning him to the 12-member panel but also attracting "no" votes from 17% of the shares cast at the company's yearly meeting. Hedge fund manager John Paulson was selected to take Papa's board seat, effective immediately.
Babylon Holdings (BBLN) slid 8.6% after the digital health care company late Thursday said it issued more than 3.9 million of its class A shares in exchange for outstanding warrants to buy nearly 14.9 million Babylon shares. The company now plans to next month swap 0.2655 of a share for all of its warrants still outstanding.
BioSig Technologies (BSGM) dropped 22.5 after the medical device company Friday priced a $3.5 million public offering of 4.67 million common shares at $0.75 apiece, or 25% under Thursday's closing price.