Australian biotech market watch 17/11/09

The All Ordinaries has retracted after seeing a surge in early trading. As of 2.45pm this afternoon it's down 18 points to 4,755 from a of 4,809 at 10am.

Xenotransplantation specialists, Living Cell Technologies (ASX:LCT), are up by 9.5% to 29c after its announcement of a share purchase plan yesterday. This means the price of 25c per share being offered by LCT is equivalent to a 15% discount from the current price.

Prima Biomed (ASX:PRR) issued a trading halt this morning pending an announcement of an oral vaccine for cervical cancer. It last traded at 16.5c, up 3.1%.

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) also saw impressive gains this morning, up 8c to $1.36. Cancer drug company, ChemGenex, put on 3.7% to 98.5c.

Also experiencing rises were Sirtex (ASX:SRX), up 16c to $6.66, Ramsay Health Care (ASX:RHC), up 12c to $10.91 and Cellestis (ASX:CST), up 4c to $3.84.

Falls were seen by Blackmores (ASX:BKL), down 1.4% to $20.71, and Ansell (ASX:ANN), down a similar amount to $10.26.

The majors remained fairly steady.