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ArQule Inc. ARQL Stock Price Up 63.43%

Shares of clinical-stage biotechnology company  ArQule Inc. shot up 63.43% on Wednesday after the company announced positive result for its drug candidate ARQ-197 in treating lung cancer. 

ARQL stock price closed the regular NASDAQ session at $5.72 a share, up $2.22, a gain of over 63%.

ArQule reported that a mid-stage clinical trial of ARQ-197 showed that lung cancer patients taking ARQ-197 with Tarceva lived longer without disease progression than those taking Tarceva alone.

ARQL shares hit an intraday and 52 week high of $7.49 during the session.  ARQL traded 47,199,763 shares on Wednesday.  ARQL's average daily stock volume is 169,013.

GenVec Inc. GNVC Stock Price Down 71%

Shares of GenVec Inc. dropped by more than seventy percent on Tuesday after the company announced that it was discontinuing a study of TNFerade as a treatment for pancreatic cancer.

GNVC stock price closed down $2.01 (71.53%) to 80 cents a share in trading on the NASDAQ.

GNVC hit a 52 week low of 40 cents on March 30, 2009 and a 52 week high of $3.35 on March 10, 2010.

GenVec plans to continue analyzing data from the study to determine any futures applications for TNFerade.

ARCA biopharma ABIO Stock Price Up 210%

Shares of ARCA biopharma (NASDAQ ABIO) rocketed up 210% on Friday after the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology company was granted a patent for its approach to treating heart failure patients.  ABIO is  using the heart failure drug bucindolol (Gencaro) to treat heart failure patients based on genetic testing to determine candidates for Gencaro.

ARCA biopharma CEO Michael Bristow stated..."We believe this will extend our pharmacogenetic intellectual property protection around bucindolol and, if approved for marketing, provide Gencaro market exclusivity into 2025"

ABIO stock price closed the regular NASDAQ trading session up $5.57 (210%) to $8.22 a share.

Dendreon Corp DNDN Stock Price $36.61

Shares of Dendreon Corp. (DNDN NASDAQ) closed at $36.61, down $1.04 (2.76%).  DNDN hit a 52 week high of $38.12 on March 23.

The NASDAQ short interest report for mid-March shows that short interest in Dendreon increased by almost 29% during the period.

For the February 28 settlement date there were 10,035,975 DNDN shares short.  By the March 15 settlement date short interest in DNDN had increased to 12,936,722 shares.

Dendreon investors continue to wait for an FDA approval ruling on DNDN's prostate cancer treatment, Provenge.