Abraxis Bio Up Big on News

The stockprice of Abraxis BioSciences [ABBI], a component of the Edwards' Real Nanotech Index (ERNI), is up over 10% today on some bullish news. European drug giant AstraZeneca will pay Abraxis $200 million for the right to co-promote cancer drug Abraxane within the U.S. for the next five years. This will approximately double the current sales force for Abraxane. Separately, Abraxis will pay AstraZeneca $350 million for its U.S. analgesics and anesthetic products business, mostly various formulations of lidocaine, morphine, and similar stuff.

On Tuesday, Abraxis announced that it had purchase a pharmaceutical plant in Puerto Rico from Pfizer. The plant, which is compliant with U.S. and European regulations, will be used to manufacture Abraxane. Abraxis will lease part of the plant back to Pfizer for their Celebrex drug.

Abraxis and its CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong, have been controversial for a number of reasons, but they just keep on trucking.