Australian biotech market watch 16/04/10

The All Ordinaries dipped back towards the 5,000 mark after seeing well over a month of consistent gains, including pipping 5,000 for the first time since the onset of the global financial crisis.

Health care stocks have fared a little better today, rising to 9,118 in morning trading, the highest it's been in well over a year.

QRxPharma (ASX:QRX) continues to gain ground on the back of news of positive results from one of two pivotal Phase III trials for its immediate release dual-opioid pain medication, MoxDuoIR, the the stock up another 9.2% to $1.18 today - which makes a 30% bump for the week.

Xenotransplant company, Living Cell Technologies (ASX:LCT), is up 1.8% to $0.28, following news earlier in the week that one of its papers was selected as Best Publication of 2009 in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

ChemGenex (ASX:CXS) is still hovering around the 44c mark, down from around 70c this time last month after news the US Food and Drug Administration were not going to approve its second-line treatment for chronic myeloid leukaemia, OmaPro, because of the lack of a validated diagnostic to test for the T315I mutation that OmaPro targets.

Of the Big Three, CSL (ASX:CSL) has seen some gains over the last week, up nearly 1% today to $37 even, which is up nearly 3% for the week.

ResMed (ASX:RMD) saw a dip last week down to $6.63 yesterday, but has recovered today, putting on 5c to $6.68.

Cochlear (ASX:COH) has continued it strong and steady rise, peaking at $75.77 yesterday, although dropping slightly to $75.49 in today's trading.