Update-1 After Close 8/24 IBB at 286.23
XBI down 4.34%
XLV down 1.54%, NASDAQ down 0.81%
Early Afternoon Reversal Kills Biotech Rally In Heavy Trading
But Mylan is not a biotech Company??
The broad based rally in biotech stocks faded around 1P EDT Wednesday as investors were spooked by the recurring political theme of high drug prices. Hillary Clinton was given a new opening to attack specialty pharma reminiscent of Martin Shkreli of Turing Pharmaceuticals and his outrageous drug price increases. This time it was EpiPen and Mylan N.V. (MYL) and price increases up to $600 (depending on health insurance programs) over the years for two EpiPen doses of emergency allergy treatment. MYL stock fell again 5.4% today. The media firestorm on Mylan N.V. killed the buzz in biotech and healthcare stocks as politicians piled on requesting more investigations into drug pricing. This is a developing story.
For now technicals are broken and we need to see how the political aspects of drug pricing outrage plays out. It will be very difficult for the IBB to break though the $300 level with this backdrop. We need to see if the unique pricing issues of specialty pharmaceutical companies like Mylan continues to be a negative for biotech stocks.
Two well known biopharma stocks managed to stay in the green today: Incyte Pharmaceuticals (INCY) and Puma Biotechnology (PBYI).
Caution: risk off
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M&A Can Support Fourth Quarter Gains for Biotech
Need to develop a hit list for more biopharma M&A action: ACAD, BIIB, RDUS, PBYI, TSRO etc
On vacation this week, updates on weekend.
Need to break 300 on IBB for next leg up in Q4; XBI breakout level above 65