Biotech Stocks, Once Booming, Enter Bear Territory

Biotech companies are having one of their worst stock-market runs in years, as rising interest rates, scientific setbacks and a slowdown in big pharma buyouts batter the sector.

Biotech stocks began soaring in the spring of 2020 as individual investors and hedge funds flocked to the sector amid intense attention on the race to develop new vaccines and drugs for Covid-19. The uptick in demand for biotech stocks helped fuel a historic boom in initial public offerings and venture-capital investment into 2021.