Top Health Care Stocks

JNJ +0.23%

PFE +0.13%

ABT +1.08%

MRK +0.05%

AMGN +1.81%

Health care stocks were mostly higher, with the NYSE Health Care Sector Index climbing about 0.1% and shares of health care companies in the S&P 500 posting a 0.5% gain as a group.

In company news, BioLineRx Ltd. ( BLRX ) rallied Monday after the early-stage biotech company reported positive data from ongoing Phase IIa testing of its BL-8040 drug candidate in patientxs with acute myeloid leukemia.

The prospective chemotherapy triggered substantial mobilization of leukemia cancer cells from the bone marrow to peripheral blood in patients, including a median 70% drop in the number of leukemia in a patient's bone marrow while the number of normal progenitor cells was stable after only two days of BL-8040 monotherapy.

BL-8040 also showed a 350% increase in cell death of leukemia cells in both the bone marrow and in peripheral blood samples during additional testing. There also were no dose-limiting toxicity or serious adverse events during the dose-escalation stage of the trial, the company said.

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Health Care Sector Update for 12/08/2014: BLRX,CBST,MRK,ALR