Wall Street is already betting that a President Hillary Clinton may not be
good for the red-hot biotech industry
Biotech stocks tumbled on Monday after Clinton fired off
a tweet about "price gouging" in biotech drugs.
Prices had skyrocketed
overnight to $750 from just $13.50 each for a drug called Daraprim -- a 62-year-old
drug used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection. Clinton sent out a
link to a New York Times article about it.
Clinton promised to
unveil a plan on Tuesday to
take on "outrageous" price increases like that one. Her
campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on specifics.
In her Twitter message,
Clinton commented yesterday as follows:
Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is
outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on. -H
The former
first lady's comments clearly spooked investors. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology
ETF (IBB) went from flat on the day before the Clinton tweet to closing down
nearly 5%.
Biotech
stocks helped knock the NASDAQ into the
red on what had been an otherwise positive day for U.S. stocks. The nine
biggest losers on the Nasdaq 100 were all biotech stocks, led by BioMarin
Pharmaceutical (BMRN) and Biogen (BIIB), both of which tumbled 6% apiece. Other
big biotech names under pressure include Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN),
Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Celgene (CELG).
One of the
hardest-hit biotech stocks was Retrophin (RTRX), which plummeted 14% on Monday
Courtesy :
CNN Money
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