Across the board HIT on biotechs today....this article explains the "kneejerk reaction" by sellers:
fool.com
Today's Real News: Government Supports Gene Patents
How investors are misunderstanding biotech
By Jeff Fischer (TMF Jeff)
March 14, 2000
<<<People fell all over themselves to sell biotech shares today, even though many of these same people had rushed to buy the shares only recently. Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI) , Celera (NYSE: CRA) , Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MLNM) , Incyte (Nasdaq: INCY) and many other young, leading biotech stocks fell 20% or greater. The culprit?
The media is pointing to Bill Clinton and the U.K.'s Tony Blair. The two men had the "audacity" to propose that raw human genome sequencing information should be shared with the public. That is not new information, however. The Human Genome Project was created long ago to do this very thing (share its information), and since its inception Celera stated that it would likely share its raw data for free or at very little cost to subscribers. So, in fact, the only novel news presented today was good news, thus it is baffling that biotech shares got stomped....
Isolating and discovering what each gene does in the body is where actual medical solutions can be discovered. Companies that discover these solutions deserve rewards for their labor and expense, and they will be rewarded -- as the government stated today (although the message was lost in the noise)....(more)>>>- |
