The announcement from Scott Gottlieb that he was resigning as FDA commissioner took the industry by surprise, and the news weighed heavily on biopharmaceutical equities, with the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical index falling almost 4 percent by market close Thursday. The drop in value was greater than that experienced in the general markets, with the Nasdaq Composite index and Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 2 and 1.3 percent, respectively, over the same three-day period.