The S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) finished weaker on Friday, down 0.1% to 7,730.5 points.
Meantime, these three ASX pharmaceutical shares outdid their peers.
Let's find out why.
3 pharma stocks beating the ASX index today
Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: NEU)
The Neuren Pharmaceuticals share price closed at $23.70 on Friday, up 4.27%.
There was no news from the company today. But as my Fool colleague James reported earlier in the week, this ASX pharma share is having an incredible run, up nearly 50% in just one month.
Investors are excited about the early success of Neuren's Rett syndrome drug, Daybue.
Neuren was the best performer of the ASX 200 in 2023 and the fifth-best performer of the ASX All Ords Index. The pharma share delivered a staggering 214% gain for investors over the year.
Clarity Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: CU6)
Clarity Pharmaceuticals shares had a strong start on Friday, rising to a new 52-week high of $2.50 apiece. That was an impressive 8.7% bounce for the stock, so it was outdoing the ASX index by some margin.
Then it all changed. The pharma stock retreated and eventually closed down 0.43% at $2.29.
There was no news out of the company today. However, we reported yesterday that broker Bell Potter has put a speculative buy rating on the ASX pharma stock with a 12-month share price target of $3.
The broker said: "Clarity's SAR-bis-PSMA platform is emerging as a highly differentiated platform for the imaging and treatment of mCRPC. The IP protection is top shelf compared to existing platforms …".
Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX)
The Telix share price performed well above the ASX index on Friday. Telix shares booked a 3.64% gain to close at $10.53 apiece.
While there were no announcements today, the company delivered a trading update on Monday.
Telix told investors that 4Q FY23 revenue came in 11% higher than 3Q, largely due to sales of its newly released prostate cancer imaging product, Illuccix, in the United States.
Telix also released a new investor presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference this week.
