Health Care Higher as Risk Appetite Buoys Biotech -- Health Care Roundup

Shares of health-care companies rose as an increase in risk appetite buoyed biotech stocks.

Eli Lilly named a new finance chief, Joshua Smiley, and announced a number of other executive changes, as the drugmaker contends with layoffs and patent expirations.

Merck's decision to drop development of two experimental hepatitis C treatments, on the heels of a similar pullback by Johnson & Johnson, has resulted in "some sort of stable duopoly" in the market for treating the viral disease, between Gilead and AbbVie, said analysts at brokerage Leerink.

Shares of Zogenix surged after the drug developer said a treatment for a form of epilepsy showed promise in a clinical trial.

Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2017 17:18 ET (21:18 GMT)