STOCKWATCH: Waiting for the biotech bubble to burst

Everybody's wondering, when will the biotech bubble burst? Whilst there have been IPOs cancelled citing "market conditions", news of many more primary and secondary offerings continues to appear in our in boxes. Logic dictates that the bubble will burst eventually and indeed in the last year we've already had two warning pops caused by drug pricing concerns, but the NASDAQ Biotech Index has continued its relentless climb. Even so, fresh evidence is appearing that the bubble is about to die, starting with this latest earnings season

When Swiss biotech company Actelion reported its fourth quarter 2015 financial results, weak sales of its biggest product for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, Tracleer (bosentan) and its replacement Opsumit (macitentan) resulted in 8% and 20% misses in consensus estimates of sales and earnings, respectively. Combined with very cautious 2015 earnings guidance, not all of which was due to the strength of the Swiss franc, one might have expected a significant down day for Actelion's shares