
Biogen Inc. BIIB shares rallied in the extended session late Friday following a full-day halt after the biotech company received a recommendation from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee to approve an Alzheimer’s treatment it makes with Eisai Co. ESALF Biogen shares rallied as much as 9% after hours, after spending the regular session halted at $308.88. Eisai shares finished Friday up 9.4% at $81.03. On Friday, the FDA’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend the companies’ drug Leqembi to treat Alzheimer’s disease. While the FDA is not bound to committee recommendations, the agency generally follows them. Approval of the drug is expected by July 6.
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Shares of Chase Corp. CCF rallied more than 5% in the extended session Friday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the specialty-chemicals maker is working with advisers on a potential sale. According to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter, Chase has received multiple bids from private-equity firms and other industrial companies. One of the private-equity bids comes from Pritzker Private Capital, the report said. Pritzker Private Capital is a family-owned investment firm connected to the family of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and others. Chase Corp.’s market capitalization hovered at around $1.17 billion, according to FactSet as of late Friday. The stock has gained about 43% so far this year, compared with an advance of around 12% for the S&P 500 index. SPX
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Car-sharing company Turo late Friday updated its initial public offering filing, saying that revenue rose 30% to $186 million in first quarter, from $143 million in the year-ago period. That also compares with $747 million in revenue for all of 2022. Losses widened, however, to $24.3 million, or 76 cents a share, in the quarter, from $7 million, or 23 cents a share, a year ago. Turo, which publicly filed for its IPO in January 2022, said that as of March 31 it had more than 165,000 active “hosts,” or people and small businesses using the platform to rent their vehicles. “Many of our small business and professional hosts started their journey with us as consumer hosts and scaled their businesses as they saw success on our platform,” the company said. More than 3 million “guests,” or those who rented the cars, booked more than 19.1 million days on Turo’s platform in all of last year, the company said.
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U.S. stock indexes finished higher on Friday with the Nasdaq Composite COMP booking its longest weekly winning streak since November 2019, while the S&P 500 SPX extended gains after technically exiting bear-market territory, logging fourth straight weekly advance. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rose 43 points, or 0.1%, to end at 33,877, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.1%, to finish at 4,298. The Nasdaq was up 0.2%.The large-cap S&P 500 index Thursday officially exited its longest bear-market run since 1948, closing 20% above last year’s trough in October.For the week, the S&P 500 posted a 0.4% gain and its fourth positive week in a row. It was the index’s longest weekly winning streak since August 12, 2022. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.1%, while the Dow industrials rose 0.3% on a weekly basis, according to Dow Jones Market Data.Investors looked ahead to the May inflation data set for release next Tuesday, along with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision due Wednesday afternoon. Markets priced in a 70% probability that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at a range of 5.0% to 5.25% after its meeting on June 14, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
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Eisai Co. Ltd. ESALF shares were up 9.4% Friday after advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously in favor of the Eisai and Biogen BIIB Alzheimer’s treatment Leqembi. The panel of independent experts said that a clinical study had verified the clinical benefit of Leqembi, also known as lecanemab. The treatment got a green light under the FDA’s accelerated approval program in January. An FDA decision on traditional approval is expected by July 6. Advisory committee votes are not binding, but the FDA often follows committee recommendations. Biogen stock trading was halted Friday during the advisory committee meeting.
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