The biotech's shares rose 8.2% to 14.87, hitting a 2-month high after it said it shipped 12,978 Qsymia prescriptions in the period ended Dec. 21, up more than 67% from the previous four-week period. Qsymia is Vivus' (VVUS) obesity drug. It debuted in Sept., but the ramp was a bit slow since it was at first only available by mail order through CVS (CVS) and Walgreen (WAG). Since then, prospects were boosted by new insurance coverage from Aetna (AET) and Express Scripts (ESRX) as a provider.
Asian stocks fell to one-month lows on Friday and the yen rebounded broadly as extreme volatility in the Nikkei …