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Non-Tech : Le coin des francophones -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lapiastre who wrote (16025)	4/6/2000 8:48:00 AM
From: lapiastre	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77509

Joyeux "hasard" que cette nouvelle soit sorti hier UPDATE 1-Biotech stocks up after Clinton reassures industry (Reuters, 04/5/2000 18:16) By David Brinkerhoff NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. biotechnology companies jumped as much as 11 percent on Wednesday after President Clinton reassured the industry that its commercial gene discoveries could be patented. Last month, confusion over a joint statement from Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair led to a sharp drop in biotech stocks amid concern that research into the human genome -- the recipe book of genes that form a person -- would have to be made freely available to a wider community of researchers. That wider distribution of research, investors feared, would hurt profits of individual companies that had discovered, and were trying to patent, commercial uses of genes. "If someone discovers something that has a specific commercial application, they ought to be able to get a patent on it," Clinton said at the White House Wednesday. The Nasdaq biotech index <.IXB>, which includes more than 200 U.S. and European companies, finished the day up 6.31 percent to 1072.40, leaving it 21 percent higher than at the beginning of the year. Wednesday's gain helped the sector regain ground lost since the mid-March announcement, which prompted a 12 percent drop in the Nasdaq biotech index that day. In early March, the high-flying sector was up 80 percent from the end of 1999. "I think he was made aware that his early remarks had been taken negatively and were hurting (the industry)," said Matt Geller, a biotech analyst with CIBC World Markets Corp. "I think he wanted to make it clear that the government wants to foster this research." Among individual issues, PE Corp-Celera (NYSE:CRA) was up 39-3/4 to 113, the biggest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange. Other Biotech companies that showed gains included Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNM), which climbed 9-3/8, or 39 percent, to 33-1/2; Gene Logic Inc. (NASDAQ:GLGC), which rose 11-9/16 to 41-7/16, and Genome Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ:GENE), which rose 36 percent, or6-1/4, or 37 percent, to about 23-3/4. david.brinkerhoff@reuters.com))