The pleasant memories of summer vacations are sure to fade quickly for biotech investors who are returning, post-Labor Day, to the harsh realities of markets that are not ready to embrace the sector anytime soon. As we head to the end of the third quarter, there is no momentum being built by blue-chip biopharmaceutical companies, as their share values languished once again last month.
The turbulent financial markets that have seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average drop over 2% in August appear to have caught up with innovative mid-cap public companies engaged in exciting cancer research such as immuno-oncology. Up until now they have enjoyed strong investor support, but for the first time this year investors appear to be moving out of this sector and, as a result, share values have dipped dramatically. As a result, the BioWorld Cancer Index is trading down 11% in August.