Pharma News: Vivus, Inc. (VVUS), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA)’s Announcement & MannKind Corporation (MNKD)’s New Options

Interesting MNKD Put And Call For October 4th (Forbes)
Investors in MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) saw new options become available today, for the October 4th expiration. At Stock Options Channel, our YieldBoost formula has looked up and down the MNKD options chain for the new October 4th contracts and identified one put and one call contract of particular interest. The put contract at the $5.50 strike price has a current bid of 41 cents. If an investor was to sell-to-open that put contract, they are committing to purchase the stock at $5.50, but will also collect the premium, putting the cost basis of the shares at $5.09 (before broker commissions)…

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. Sets New 1-Year Low at $6.31 (ARNA) (MideastTime)
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) set a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday, AnalystRatingsNetwork reports. The stock traded as low as $6.31 and last traded at $6.36, with a volume of 8,194,331 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.69. ARNA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note to investors on Friday, August 2nd.

VVUS Makes Bullish Cross Above Critical Moving Average (Forbes)
In trading on Monday, shares of VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) crossed above their 200 day moving average of $12.66, changing hands as high as $12.95 per share. Vivus, Inc. shares are currently trading up about 2.5% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of VVUS shares, versus its 200 day moving average: …Looking at the chart above, VVUS’s low point in its 52 week range is $9.86 per share, with $24.86 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $12.78.