Hillary Clinton's 21 words clobber biotechs

Matt Krantz | USA TODAY

Just a 21-word tweet from presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is enough to hammer biotech stocks.

The SPDR S&P Biotech exchange-traded fund, a collection of some of the largest biotech stocks, is down Monday 5% to $75.16. One of the most valuable biotech stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500, Biogen (BIIB) is down 5.6% to $297.16. And trouble in biotechs - one of the hottest corners of Wall Street - is bleeding over to the rest of the market. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which contains many biotech stocks, was hurt by the group but still managed to close 0.04% higher.

What did Clinton say that has investors so worried? "Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on," Clinton wrote on Twitter. Her comments are in response to a weekend story on from the New York Times talking about the 5,456% increase of a 62-year-old drug called Daraprim, after its parent company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, was bought by a former hedge-fund manager. The article points out that these rapid price hikes are common with many "specialty drugs."

Promises of price controls put the fear into investors - who dread government moves to regulate the industry. And that's why just a few words from a presidential candidate can spell trouble.

HARDEST HIT BIOTECH STOCKS IN S&P 500 MONDAY

Company, Symbol, % Ch. Monday

Biogen, BIIB, -5.6%

Vertex, VRTX, -4.8%

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, REGN, -3.8%

Alexion Pharmceuticals, ALXN, -3.6%

elgene, CELG, -2.8%

Gilead Sciences, GILD, -2.5%

Amgen, AMGN, -2.3%

Baxalta, BXLT, -2.2%

Source: S&P Capital IQ, USA TODAY

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