ALXN goes for 5 in a row --11:57 am - By Michael Baron Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN: news, msgs) continues to drop, losing $9.06, or 18.4 percent, to $40.94, in midday action. If the stock closes lower Friday, it will have fallen in five straight sessions, giving back roughly 45 percent of its market capitalization in the space of one week. The shares have been in freefall since Monday when Alexion disclosed information about the progress of the phase II clinical trials of its rheumatoid arthritis drug 5G1.1, an anti-inflammatory C5 inhibitor monoclonal anti-body. The company said the primary endpoint of improvement for 5G1.1, as prescribed by the American College of Rheumatology, was successfully met in one of the four treated groups during interim trials. Reuters has also reported that there has been confusion about the results of phase IIb trial of the Cheshire, Conn., firm's C5 inhibitor in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. The report quotes analysts as saying this trial missed its primary endpoint, information that was only disclosed in a conference call last Friday rather than in the original press release last Wednesday.
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