Biogen Inc. stock has picked up $4.88 over the past two days,closing at $38.50 on Tuesday, following positive comments byOppenheimer & Co. analyst Jeffrey Casdin.

Casdin wrote that good results of a Japanese trial of nativebeta interferon to treat hepatitis C had positive implicationsfor Biogen's recombinant beta interferon, now in Phase IItrials in the United States and Europe. The Japanese resultswere reported Oct. 12 in The Lancet (See BioWorld for Monday,Oct. 14).

"We have been getting increasingly bullish on the stock overthe past few months as data from clinical trials on the use ofits proprietary anti-coagulant, Hirulog, to be reported nextmonth at the American Heart conference, have been soundingquite positive," Casdin wrote. "This latest data on betainterferon makes us feel aggressively bullish."

Biogen stock (NASDAQ:BGEN) has lagged behind the group oftop-tier biotech stocks this year, gaining 15.5 percent throughthe end of the third quarter. -- KB

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