Xoma Corp

Companies ranked by percentage loss in stock price. % Change 4/20/93 3/31/92 Stock Stock Stock Rank Company Price Price Price 1 Chantal Pharmaceutical -90 .94 9.25 2 American Health Services -83 .63 3.81 3 Cherokee Group -82 .56 3.13 4 Tokos Medical Corp. -82 5.25 29.25 5 Western Energy Mgmt. -81 1.06 5.63 6 Quarterdeck Office Systems -81 3.50 18.00 7 TriCare Inc. -80 2.13 10.75 8 Alliance Imaging -77 1.88 8.25 9 Sam & Libby Inc. -77 3.25 13.88 10 Vitesse Semiconductor -75 4.00 16.

Centocor Inc. stopped testing its flagship drug in the United States and suspended sales in Europe on Monday, saying increasing numbers of people have died after receiving the treatment. Once-admiring investors dumped Centocor shares on the NASDAQ market, making it by far the most active stock. The price dropped by $11.375, or nearly two-thirds, to $6.375, with more than 12.7 million shares changing hands.

Companies with highest ratio of stock market value to sales. 4/10/92 1991 Price- Mkt. Value Revenue to-Sales Rank Company ($ Millions) ($ Millions) Ratio 1 Molecular Biosystems Inc. * 324.8 12.2 26.61 2 Xoma Corp. 401.4 17.1 23.42 3 Alza Corp. 3,198.8 139.7 22.89 4 Tejon Ranch Co. * 264.7 13.6 19.43 5 Amgen Inc. 7,780.0 682.0 11.41 6 Chiron Corp. 1,196.8 118.5 10.10 7 Cisco Systems Inc. 2,380.4 244.0 9.75 8 Mail Boxes Etc. 215.2 26.0 8.28 9 Vitesse Semiconductor * 199.1 27.4 7.

Two California state senators have joined Treasurer Phil Angelides' corporate governance campaign and are introducing bills that would penalize U.S. firms that have moved their headquarters offshore by cutting them out of lucrative state contracts and closing loopholes in the state tax code.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides called on California's two largest pension funds Thursday to stop investing in companies that move their headquarters offshore to avoid paying taxes, and said the state would blacklist those firms. In recent years, a growing number of U.S. companies, such as conglomerate Tyco International Ltd., manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand Co. and Xoma Corp., a biotech firm, have reincorporated in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands.

Companies ranked by net losses in 1996, including one-time charges that may not indicate routinely losing operations. *--* Rank Company 96 income (millions) 1 Apple Computer Inc. -$835 2 AST Research Inc. -418 3 Amdahl Corp. -327 4 Merisel Inc. -219 5 Calgene Inc. -145 6 Sizzler International -136 7 National Semiconductor -126 8 Advanced Micro Devices -115 9 SyQuest Technology Inc. -110 10 Argonaut Group Inc. -106 11 Trikon Technologies Inc. -94 12 Bay Networks Inc. -83 13 Cirrus Logic Inc.

Synergen Inc. said Monday that its lead product, Antril, has failed in clinical trials for treatment of the blood infection sepsis and that it will cut its staff in half, an announcement that sparked a steep drop in the company's stock price. Synergen's stock lost nearly half its value in heavy trading after the announcement and closed down $4.375 at $4.50 on the Nasdaq, where it was the second-most-active issue in afternoon trading.

The landscape in the land of the loved hasn't changed much in the last year, proving that investors can indeed be faithful, particularly when their affections are returned. And lately they have been returned with a vengeance. In 1990 Wall Street smiled on biotechnology stocks, and biotech responded by fulfilling the promises it made more than a decade ago: products, profitability and a prosperous future. "Have you seen what these stocks have done these last two years?" asked Peter F.