Morning Movers 10/05: DEPO, AVII, OPTV, CRXX, UCTT, CPRX Higher; FOLD, FTBK, SGEN, SCLN, REED Lower

October 5, 2009 10:16 AM EDT

Amicus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FOLD) 30.5% LOWER; late Friday announced preliminary results from its Phase 2 randomized, open-label study to assess the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of its investigational drug, Plicera(TM) (afegostat tartrate), in treatment-naive adult patients with type 1 Gaucher disease. Click here for the full report. The stock has been downgraded at numerous firms this morning, including JPMorgan.

Depomed, Inc. (NASDAQ: DEPO) 29.3% HIGHER; today announced top-line results from a Phase 3 clinical trial demonstrating DM-1796 (also referred to as gabapentin ER) achieved a statistically significant reduction in pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia versus placebo using the baseline observation carried forward method required by FDA. The primary endpoint measured pain scores from baseline to the end of a ten-week treatment period using the numerical Likert pain scale. Click here to see the full report. The stock was also started at Buy at Merriman Curhan.

AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII) 26.1% HIGHER; received expanded contract funding of approximately $11.5 million from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative to support development of the Investigational New Drug data package for its candidate drug, AVI-7012, to treat Junin virus infection.

Frontier Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: FTBK) 24.2% LOWER; and SP Acquisition Holdings, Inc. (AMEX: DSP) jointly announced that they have mutually agreed to terminate the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of July 30, 2009, by and between SPAH and Frontier, as amended by Amendment No. 1 to Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of August 10, 2009, effective immediately, due to the fact that certain closing conditions contained in the merger agreement could not be met.

OpenTV Corp. (NASDAQ: OPTV) 15.8% HIGHER; The Kudelski Group commenced a tender offer to acquire all outstanding Class A shares of OpenTV not owned by Kudelski or its subsidiaries for US$1.55 per share in cash.

CombinatoRx, Incorporated (NASDAQ: CRXX) 15.8% HIGHER; announced that its ophthalmic collaborator, Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA, has entered into a proposed acquisition with Sanofi-Aventis. Here is the full report.

Seattle Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGEN) 15.3% LOWER; announced today that it has discontinued the SeaGen MARINER clinical trial based on a determination that the trial would be unlikely to meet its primary endpoint of superior complete response rate in the dacetuzumab combination arm as compared to the placebo combination arm. The SeaGen MARINER trial was a randomized, double-blind phase IIb clinical trial of dacetuzumab or placebo in combination with Rituxan(R) (rituximab) plus ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide (R-ICE) chemotherapy for patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCLN) 14.7% LOWER; announced after the close Friday that it will discontinue Phase 2 Trial of RP101 in late-stage pancreatic cancer.

Ultra Clean Holdings (Nasdaq: UCTT) 12.5% HIGHER; Needham & Co upgrades the stock to Buy from Hold. Price target $8.

Reed's, Inc. (NASDAQ: REED) 11.9% LOWER; is offering in a registered direct offering up to $718,540 through the sale of Units at a price of $1.80 per Unit.

Catalyst Pharma (Nasdaq: CPRX) 11.5% HIGHER; extremely volatile the last few trading sessions, shares of Catalyst are correcting today following an 18% drop on Friday. The stock jumped nearly 40% on Thursday on news that it will continue developing its treatment for addiction.

Brocade Communications (Nasdaq: BRCD) 11.2% HIGHER; according to reports from the WSJ, Brocade has quietly put itself up for sale, citing people familiar with the matter. Hewlett-Packard and Oracle Corp. are two companies said to be interested in Brocade.

Vonage (NYSE: VG) 9.9% HIGHER; launched Vonage Mobile, its first mobile calling application for smartphones. Vonage Mobile is a free downloadable application (app) that provides seamless, low-cost international calling while on Wi-Fi or cellular networks*. Once downloaded, the service saves customers more than 50% on calls to dozens of countries versus the rates charged by wireless carriers while providing far more convenience than calling cards.

DTS Inc (Nasdaq: DTSI) 9.6% HIGHER; Deutsche Bank upgrades the stock to Buy. Price target increased to $32. Click here for more color on the upgrade.

Emerson Radio Corp. (AMEX: MSN) 8% HIGHER; announced a new North American licensing partnership with Fun Electronics, Inc., a worldwide manufacturer and distributer of affordable consumer electronics.

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