The healthcare industry has welcomed Budget proposals to raise tax exemption limits for health insurance cover and set up more AIIMS across India, saying such moves enable people’s access to better facilities.
“Increasing the tax exemption on health insurance cover will raise access to healthcare and the addition of more AIIMS will add to infrastructure in the sector.
“Raise in visas on arrival facility to 150 countries will give a boost to medical tourism in the country,” Apollo Hospitals (BSE 2.61%) Managing Director Suneeta Reddy told PTI.
Insights about those healthcare sector stocks that declined during Friday’s trade in U.S. stock exchange, are depicted underneath:
Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS)’s shares dwindled -10.75%, and closed at $4.78, during the last trading session, soon after a biomedical products company, declared that the Karolinska University Hospital (KUH) in Stockholm, has signed a three-year contract to purchase the INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets. In addition to the three-year base term, the contract allows for automatic annual extensions for an additional two years. KUH is Sweden’s largest platelet supplier and one of the largest University Hospitals in Europe, producing over 10,000 platelet units, or 20% of Sweden’s platelet supply annually. Counting KUH’s utilization of INTERCEPT in routine use, almost half of Sweden’s platelet supply is predictable to be treated with the INTERCEPT Blood System for pathogen inactivation.
“INTERCEPT pathogen inactivation enables us to replace bacterial detection, gamma irradiation, and to extend our platelet shelf-life to seven days while providing safe, effective platelet components.” said Dr. Beatrice Diedrich, area manager of clinical immunology and transfusion medicine at KUH. “Furthermore, the use of the INTERCEPT double-dose treatment process is predictable to decrease operational expenses substantially, allowing for the production of two therarapeutic doses from a single INTERCEPT Dual Storage platelet kit. Overall, we anticipate that these efficiency improvements will result in a net savings in platelet production and raise platelet availability for our patients.”
Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS), is a biomedical products company focused in the field of blood safety. The INTERCEPT Blood System is designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections by inactivating a broad range of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites that may be present in donated blood.
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA), declined -5.05%, and closed at $4.51, soon after a biopharmaceutical company, declared that it will host a conference call and webcast at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time) on Monday, March 2, 2015, to provide a corporate update and talk about fourth quarter and full year 2014 financial results. Arena will release its financial results after the NASDAQ Global Select Market closes that day.
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA), is embracing the challenge of improving health by seeking to bring innovative medicines targeting G protein-coupled receptors to patients. Arena’s focus is discovering, developing and commercializing drugs to address unmet medical needs, and BELVIQ® (lorcaserin HCl) is Arena’s first internally discovered drug approved for marketing. Arena’s US operations are located in San Diego, California, and its operations outside of the United States, counting its commercial manufacturing facility, are located in Zofingen, Switzerland.
Rockwell Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMTI), dipped -10.15%, and closed at $10, after the news release that an integrated biopharmaceutical company, stated results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2014.
- Sales were $14.4 million, a 3.5% raise over Q4 2013.
- Gross profit was $2.6 million, a 25% raise over Q4 2013.
- R&D expense was $1.7 million, a 71% decrease contrast to $5.8 million in Q4 2013.
- Cash and investments were $85.7 million at December 31, 2014.
Q4 2014 Corporate Highlights:
- Received $20 million in cash from Baxter Healthcare Corporation upon executing exclusive concentrate product commercialization contract; additionally cash potential of $17.5 million for meeting milestones.
- Received $15 million in cash from Baxter for equity investment for RMTI ordinary stock at $11.39 per share.
- Received $8.4 million in cash from warrant conversion.
- Raised $55 million in cash from equity financing with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
- Paid off long-term debt of $20 million.
- Received FDA Advisory Committee majority vote to approve Triferic for iron replacement and maintenance of hemoglobin in hemodialysis patients.
Rockwell Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMTI), is a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company targeting end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) with innovative products and services for the treatment of iron replacement, secondary hyperparathyroidism and hemodialysis.
TherapeuticsMD Inc (NYSEMKT:TXMD), dropped -5.06%, and closed at $5.07, soon after the news release that women’s health care product company, declared that it will hold a conference call and live audio webcast to talk about fourth quarter and full-year 2014 financial and business results on Tuesday, March 10. The conference call and webcast will take place at 4:30 p.m. EDT. TherapeuticsMD CEO Robert G. Finizio and Chief Financial Officer Dan Cartwright will host the call.
TherapeuticsMD Inc (NYSEMKT:TXMD), is an innovative healthcare company focused on developing and commercializing products exclusively for women. With its patented SYMBODA™ technology platform, TherapeuticsMD is developing advanced hormone therapy pharmaceutical products to enable delivery of bio-identical hormones through a variety of dosage forms and administration routes.
