Chinese biopharma stocks plummet after centralized tendering report

Chinese biopharma stocks tumbled Thursday in the wake of media and analyst reports suggesting that pricing discounts on generic drugs under China's centralized procurement program were greater than expected.

State-owned Shanghai Securities News reported significantly discounted prices for drugs in the program, including a 90% cut for antiviral entecavir and a 60% cut for hypertension drug irbesartan. In an analyst note, Morgan Stanley's Sean Wu called the overall price cut much steeper than the 30-40% expected by the market...