Health care stocks turned slightly higher this Friday afternoon, with the NYSE Health Care Index and the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF (XLV) both adding around 0.3%.
The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) posted a 0.9% increase.
In company news, Theratechnologies (THTX) slumped Friday, at one point sinking 40% to its lowest share price since January 2016, after the Canadian biopharmaceuticals company overnight said it was pausing patient enrollment for phase 1 testing of its TH1902 drug candidate while it reviews the trial design. It also expects to file an amended study protocol with the the US Food and Drug Administration after efficacy results from early-stage trial in patients with sortilin-expressing cancers so far do not support adding more patients, the company said.
Redhill Biopharma (RDHL) dropped over 27% after the specialty drug maker priced an $8 million offering of 32 million units American depositary shares at $0.25 apiece, or nearly 32% below Thursday's closing price. Investors also received a warrant to buy another ADS exercisable at $0.25 per ADS.
Progyny (PGNY) fell 5.6% after a regulatory filing late Thursday showed Chief Financial Officer Mark Livingston this week sold 14,801 of the fertility-benefits company's shares at an average of $36.70 apiece. Following Tuesday's transactions, Livingston continues to own 63,994 Progyny shares.
Anavex Life Sciences (AVXL) added almost 36% after overnight saying its Anavex 2-73 drug candidate produced a statistically significant reduction in cognitive and functional declines in patients with early Alzheimer's disease compared with patients who received a placebo, meeting primary and key secondary endpoints of a phase 2b/3 trial. Anavex2-73 also demonstrated visible improvement in patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to the company.