The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, VIVUS, Orexigen Therapeutics, Star Scientific, and Optimer Pharmaceuticals. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: OmniVision Technologies, DepoMed, TD AMERITRADE Holding, Logitech International, and Check Point Software Technologies.

Gainers

McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, Inc. (MSSR) stock climbed 29.21 percent to $9.20 in the pre-market trading, as Landry's Restaurants Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer Tilman Fertitta unveiled hostile bid for McCormick & Schmick's. Fertitta said he proposes to begin, through his affiliate LSRI Holdings, Inc., an all-cash offer to buy all of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of McCormick & Schmick's not already owned by Fertitta or his affiliates for $9.25 a share.

The offer will represent an attractive premium of about 30 percent to the closing price of McCormick & Schmick's shares on April 1. Fertitta already owns directly around 10.1 percent of the outstanding common stock of McCormick & Schmick's. Fertitta is fully committed to pursuing this transaction, and secured a financing commitment from Jefferies Group, Inc. relating to the offer.

VIVUS Inc. (VVUS) stock jumped 13.31 percent to $7.15 in the pre-market trading, after its weight-loss drug Qnexa showed reduction in blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The company said long-term data from Sequel study, that demonstrated patients treated with the investigational drug Qnexa for two years, showed reductions in blood pressure and the use of antihypertensive medications as well as improvements in lipid levels following significant reductions in weight loss as compared to those in the placebo group over two years.

Qnexa is an investigational drug candidate being developed to address weight loss, type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea. Sequel was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, three-arm, prospective study.

Patients on Qnexa had significant reductions in weight loss as compared to those in the placebo group over two years and overall, patients who took the investigational drug, showed a significant reduction in the number of antihypertensive medications they required as compared to those taking a placebo over two years of treatment.

Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (OREX) stock grew 9.38 percent to $3.15 in the pre-market trading. The company announced additional positive data that showed overweight and obese patients treated with Contrave (naltrexone sustained release (SR)/bupropion SR) maintained normal 24-hour circadian patterns over one year of treatment.

These data were from the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) sub-study of the COR-II trial that also showed weight loss and improvements in markers of cardiometabolic risk. Data were presented at the 60th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) taking place in New Orleans.

The COR-II ABPM sub-study enrolled 182 of the 1496 subjects from the main trial, at nine U.S. sites. Monitoring of ambulatory blood pressure in the sub-study was initiated prior to the intake of study drug and other morning medications and completed approximately 24-hours later at three time points during the study: baseline, Week 24 and Week 52. COR-II is one of the four Phase 3 trials supporting Orexigen's New Drug Application for Contrave.

Star Scientific, Inc. (CIGX) stock gained 5.18 percent to $5.08 in the pre-market trading.

Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OPTR) stock increased 3.88 percent to $13.64 in the pre-market trading. The company said it presented research data highlighting the unmet need for targeted therapies to treat subpopulations at high risk of recurrence of Clostridium difficile infection. Clostridium difficile infection or CDI is a serious illness resulting from infection of the inner lining of the colon by C. difficile bacteria, which produce toxins that cause inflammation of the colon, severe diarrhea and, in the most serious cases, death.

The data included information from insurance claims and survey databases, and included substantial mortality and frequent complications associated with CDI. The research by an investigator of the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, showed that the average CDI patient was 68 years old, with more than half being female. About 83 percent of the cases surveyed slotted into subpopulations such as patients with renal impairment, patients aged greater than age 80, patients aged 65-79, cancer patients, and others.

Optimer said each of the subpopulations are considered to be at high risk of recurrence or mortality from CDI. Fidaxomicin is a narrow spectrum antibiotic being developed by Optimer for the treatment of CDI. In two Phase 3 trials for the treatment of CDI, fidaxomicin was equally effective in clinical cure when compared to vancomycin. The FDA granted the company's request for six-month Priority Review of fidaxomicin, and has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of May 30.

Losers

OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) stock fell 5.78 percent to $34.10 in the pre-market trading. The company said it has acquired about 850 image sensor-related patents and patent applications from Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) for $65.0 million in a cash transaction. The transaction was completed on March 31.

The intellectual property includes numerous granted patents of key CMOS technologies covering early and fundamental CMOS image sensor work; improvements on foundational architectures, including new features and functions; and next generation performance improvements, miniaturization and cost reduction technologies.

DepoMed Inc. (DEPO) stock fell 4.65 percent to $9.44 in the pre-market trading. The company announced the appointment of James Schoeneck as the company`s President and CEO, effective April 18. Schoeneck, a member of the company`s Board of Directors since 2007, succeeds Carl Pelzel, who has resigned for personal reasons.

TD AMERITRADE Holding Corp. (AMTD) stock declined 2.43 percent to $20.87 in the pre-market trading.

Logitech International SA (LOGI) stock decreased 1.56 percent to $14.48 in the pre-market trading.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) stock moved down 1.05 percent to $51.05 in the pre-market trading.

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