Adolor plunges 43% on FDA approval delay, CTIC down 10%

Adolor Corp. (NYSE:ADLR) market cap was nearly halved this morning. ADLR share price plunged over 43% this morning in heavy trading as it went from yesterday's close of $13.94 to $7.91.

The Food and Drug Administration asked Adolor to supply it with more information regarding the company's Entereg drug, dealing it a major blow. Analysts were expecting an FDA approval of the drug this week.

Entereg, a drug aimed at helping patients recover after bowel surgery, needs to be tested further, the FDA said, and requested more safety data. The analysis involves serious cardiovascular events and a risk management plan study should be completed in the first quarter of 2007, with data available in the second.

While GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE:GSK) is also a developer of the Entereg, its shares are actually up 0.71% despite this latest delay being one of many lately. One of GSK's big hopes, its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix, had seen delay in U.S. filing last month, and diabetes drug Redona showed poor results. A few others had troubles lately.

Meanwhile, Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CTIC) shares also lost over 10% of their value. CTIC announced on Friday that it temporarily suspended enrollment in its Pioneer lung cancer, Xyotax, clinical trial on recommendation of the Data Safety Monitoring Board as it awaits follow up-data of recently enrolled patients. Some of the patients in the study had died, but the company needs to study the reason -- natural disease progression or some other effect.