01:36 PM EDT, 03/15/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Health care stocks fell Friday afternoon with the NYSE Health Care Index falling 0.8% and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV down 0.5%.

The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) rose 0.1%.

In corporate news, Geron ( GERN ) shares surged 86% after the company said the US Food and Drug Administration's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted in favor of the benefit-to-risk profile of imetelstat, a treatment of transfusion-dependent anemia in some people with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes.