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Editorial Advisory Board

  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
  • James Butler, Ph.D., Hamamatsu
  • Natalie Fardian-Melamed, Ph.D., Columbia University
  • Justin Sigley, Ph.D., AmeriCOM
  • Professor Birgit Stiller, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and Leibniz University of Hannover
  • Professor Stephen Sweeney, University of Glasgow
  • Mohan Wang, Ph.D., University of Oxford
  • Professor Xuchen Wang, Harbin Engineering University
  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

Centene, QuidelOrtho, iRhythm, and Bio-Techne Shares Skyrocket, What You Need To Know

CNC Cover Image

What Happened?

A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after news of a new government prescription drug policy and a landmark deal with Pfizer eased investor concerns over stricter pricing regulations. 

The pharmaceutical and biotech sectors rallied for a second consecutive day following the announcement of a direct-to-consumer prescription drug selling website. A key driver for the optimism is a deal between Pfizer and the administration, allowing the company to avoid potential tariffs by reducing drug prices. This outcome is seen as a relief for the industry, which had braced for more severe measures. The move has reduced uncertainty in the sector, with other major players like Eli Lilly reportedly in negotiations for a similar agreement, signaling a potentially favorable new landscape for drugmakers.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

Zooming In On Bio-Techne (TECH)

Bio-Techne’s shares are very volatile and have had 21 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 2 days ago when the stock gained 5.3% as reports revealed a potential drug-pricing agreement between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry. 

The Trump administration is advancing its “Most Favored Nation” initiative, which aims to lower prescription drug costs for Americans. This policy would tie the prices of medications in the U.S. to the lowest costs paid by other wealthy nations. As part of this push, Pfizer has reportedly entered into an agreement to voluntarily sell its medications through Medicaid at these reduced prices. The move comes as the administration intensifies pressure on drugmakers to make prices more affordable. While pricing controls can often be a headwind, the market's positive reaction suggests that investors may see this voluntary agreement as a way to resolve regulatory uncertainty, providing a clearer path forward for the industry.

Bio-Techne is down 13.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $61.83 per share, it is trading 21.5% below its 52-week high of $78.75 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Bio-Techne’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,001.

Today’s young investors won’t have read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.

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