XBI enters bear territory as Marks’ ouster makes a bad market worse
Index down more than 20% since presidential election
If the markets had a bad start on Monday, biotechs had it even worse, with the XBI officially entering bear market territory. After the abrupt dismissal of a top FDA official on Friday, stocks dipped amid compounding anxiety over new tariffs expected from the Trump administration this week — factors that sent the broader markets lower at the open.
FDA was plunged into a crisis over the weekend as new FDA Commissioner Marty Makary quietly moved to push out Peter Marks, the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), a move endorsed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Marks was one of the last veteran leaders left at the agency. Marks’ ouster raised concerns about ongoing regulatory risk for products regulated by CBER, including cell and gene therapies and vaccines...