Word of the Day

Exchange-Traded Fund

In the wide and varied family of the thousands and thousands of funds out there, the exchange-traded fund is one of the more consumer-friendly ones.

Unlike mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, behave more like stocks. You can buy into an ETF at any time, and sell it whenever you feel like it. And like a stock, an ETF's value can rise and fall--depending on what the ETF is invested in.What do ETFs invest in? Well, they're typically linked to an index like the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. So, if you had an ETF that trades the same companies that make up the Dow or the S&P, it will rise and fall in value pretty much the same amount as the Dow or S&P.

You can also buy ETFs that invest in other types of products, like bonds, currencies, gold or other commodities. The ETF market has grown considerably in the past few years, so there is no shortage of ETFs to invest in.

Home / Markets / Industries / Health Care

Monday, October 06, 2008

Genentech And OSI: Avastin-Tarceva Misses An Endpoint

Email this Story | Respond to Editor | Print

Robert Daniel

MarketWatch Pulse

TEL AVIV -- Genentech Inc., the South San Francisco biotech firm, and OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Melville, N.Y., drugmaker, said on Monday that in a Phase III trial, Avastin combined with Tarceva in certain patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer did not meet its primary endpoint of improving overall survival compared with Tarceva plus placebo. The study assessed patients for whom the disease had progressed after they had undergone platinum-based chemotherapy. The study did show, however, "clear evidence of clinical activity with improvements in the secondary endpoints of progression-free survival and response rate when Avastin was added to Tarceva compared to Tarceva alone," the companies said.