Reuters first in biotech: Dendreon, Elan & Gilea

Shares of hot biotech company Dendreon climbed more than 5 percent and volume surged after Reuters reported exclusively on July 23 that it had hired an adviser to seek a possible international licensing partner. Then, Reuters broke news on July 21 that biotech firm Elan Corp secretly had given J&J the option to buy out Biogen Idec`s 50 percent share of the blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri if Biogen were to be sold. Bloomberg and Dow Jones followed more than 7 hours later, when the chief financial officer admitted there was such an agreement at an earnings press conference. The Reuters story was cited by analysts, investors and commentators. Reuters also reported exclusively that Biogen wanted to pay more than $700 million for the right that Elan gave to J&J, and later followed with an analysis on Biogen and Biogen investor Carl Icahn. Reuters was six minutes ahead of Bloomberg and 44 minutes ahead of Dow Jones on July 21 in reporting a disappointing forecast by Gilead. Shares of Gilead, which had been trading about 1 percent lower in the wake of the company’s quarterly earnings release, dropped as much as 5 percent.