Canadian Biotechs Get Caught Up in Selloff Sparked by Genetic Announcement

VANCOUVER -- The tension-filled days leading up to last week's technology selloff on Wall Street may have reminded astute hockey fans of game seven of the 1994 Stanley Cup finals between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. The back-and-forth classic, an exercise in anxiety control most tech investors are familiar with, left observers to contend with heart palpitations and fight-or-flight syndrome.

For investors with greenbacks tied up in Canadian biotech stocks, however, the parallel may be drawn more closely with that hockey game's aftermath: an ugly hockey riot on the streets of Vancouver, triggered by the displeasure of drunken Canucks fans.

The retail-investing masses -- themselves intoxicated on astounding returns in Canada's biotech sector -- showed their penchant for mob activity after the now-infamous announcement made by President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling for free public access to human genetic research. ...