Philadelphia-area biotech, specialty pharmaceutical and generic drug company stocks got hammered Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump criticized the industry for manufacturing drugs outside of the U.S. and charging excessive prices.
“We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, but we don’t bid properly, and we’ll save billions over time and we’ll do that with a lot of other industries,” Trump said at his first news conference since July. Trump went on to say he thinks the industry is “getting away with murder.”
Those comments sparked a sell-off in the biotech market, with the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index decreasing by about 3.7 percent shortly before 2 p.m. ET, a few hours after his comments.
Among the local drug company stocks taking the biggest hits Wednesday were Discovery Labs (NASDAQ: DSCO), which dropped more than 9 percent in mid-afternoon trading, and Endo International (NASDAQ: ENDP). Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ONCE), Egalet (NASDAQ: EGLT) and Aclaris Therapeutic (NASDAQ: ACRS) were all down more than 7 percent.
Local generic drug makers also took a hit with shares of Lannett Co. (NYSE: LCI) down nearly 6 percent, and Teva (NYSE: TEVA) down 2.8 percent.
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