On Sunday, after the latest NYT piece by Andrew Pollack focusing on the "astronomical" prices increases by Valeant we made a simple observation: "More Pain For Biotechs Ahead: Valeant's "Astronomical" Price Increases Take Center Stage; Pfizer Gets Dragged In [5]." Sure enough, on Monday Valeant promptly crashed over 10 [6]% as the second round of concerns about price caps emerged.
Then, this morning, the attack against biotech price gouging became two-pronged when this time the WSJ joined in the NYT with an article overnight "For Prescription Drug Makers, Price Increases Drive Revenue [7]" in which the topic was familiar to those following the interplay between "astronomical" biotech prices and the imminent congressional crackdown on said prices:
Attention has focused lately on new drugs with eye-popping prices and on a few whose price a new owner abruptly raised several-fold. But what many drug companies rely on for sales growth is a pattern of steady increases, year in and year out, on older medicines. Wholesale-price increases for the 30 drugs analyzed by the Journal averaged 76% over the five-year stretch from 2010 through 2014. That was more than eight times general inflation.
For 20 leading global drug companies last year, 80% of growth in net profits stemmed from price increases in the U.S., according to a May report by Credit Suisse.
For those wondering, the tone's article was not conducive to further upside in the sector. And, as we warned earlier today...
Another biotech price-increase hit, this time from the WSJ http://t.co/Eo0svhZrjU [8]
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 6, 2015 [9]
... it was just a matter of time before the market realized that the happy days for biotechs are now over. Sure enough, a quick glance at the Nasdaq Biotech Index reveals that after a modest drop yesterday when mostly Valeant was punished, the weakness today is widespread and is hitting the entire biotech sector which moments ago was down a whopping 6.4%, and just over 3,000, the biotech sector is once again not only red for the year, but danger of taking out the 2015 lows hit in the last days of September.
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And here is a long-term chart of the biotech move. Don't worry: they are still supported byh the 666-DMA.
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