Big-Cap Biotech Worries Lead Sector Down: BioBuzz

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The biotech sector has been acting sickly for the past couple of weeks and Monday was no better. On a bad day for stocks in general the bios were even lousier, which had professional biotech investors "freaking out," according to one analyst.

"We've literally hundreds of calls/emails asking about the weakness," wrote Deutsche Bank biotech analyst Mark Schoenebaum in a Monday email to clients. The inquiries prompted Schoenebaum to hold a conference call late Monday trying to explain why everyone was having such a lousy day.

Unfortunately, no single data point or event explains why biotechs are acting so poorly, said Schoenebaum on his call. It's more a gmish -- health care reform anxiety, an addled economy that's still affecting drug sales, and big-cap earnings reports last week in which almost every company missed the top-line consensus for at least one of its major products.

More specifically, health care investors are worried about how doctors and the market will interpret upcoming separate data presentations from two big biotech stocks -- Amgen(AMGN Quote) and Celgene(CELG Quote). The stocks both fell 3% Monday.

Amgen will be presenting detailed data Friday from a long-term safety study of the company's anemia drug Aranesp in pre-dialysis patients. In August, Amgen reported top-line results from the so-called TREAT study showing that use of Aranesp in these patients did not cause an increase in cardiovascular-related side effects or death.

Still, concerns about the safety of Aranesp in these kidney disease patients persists, including whether the drug may be linked to cancer promotion.