Healthcare stocks rose Thursday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index rising 1.1% and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) adding 1.2%.
The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) increased 1.1%.
In corporate news, Eli Lilly's (LLY) weight-loss drugs secured coverage from the three largest US pharmacy benefit managers, the drugmaker said Thursday. Lilly shares gained 3.6%.
Agilent Technologies (A) stock jumped 19% after the company posted higher fiscal Q2 adjusted earnings and revenue, and raised its fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance.
Illumina (ILMN) shares climbed 4.9% after it said it launched a whole-genome sequencing research workflow for molecular residual disease detection.
Cogent Biosciences (COGT) shares added 2.4% after it said the US Food and Drug Administration has accepted its new drug application for bezuclastinib plus sunitinib to treat patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors who have been treated with imatinib previously.