What happened
Rare-disease company BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN 2.87%) saw its shares plunge by 11.5% right out of the gate Thursday morning. The drugmaker's shares were being pulled down by the markewide sell-off sparked by the global spread of the COVID-19 illness.
Unlike a lot of its biotech peers, however, BioMarin's shares rebounded to some degree as the day's trading progressed. The biotech stock, in fact, was down by 4.72% as of 10:54 a.m. EDT Thursday.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
As a revenue-generating orphan-drug maker with multiple products on the market and two high-value clinical candidates in late-stage development, BioMarin would seem to be immune to this marketwide turbulence. People with life-threatening rare diseases, after all, aren't going to forgo their treatments. However, investors don't appear to care about the facts in this ongoing flight to safety. Nearly every publicly traded company is taking a major hit today -- even ones like BioMarin, which probably won't be economically impacted by this respiratory illness in the least.
Now what
Is this dip in BioMarin's share price a buying opportunity? The short answer is yes. BioMarin has one of the best orphan-drug portfolios in the business, along with a robust clinical pipeline. In the near future, the company should also grab key regulatory approvals for its severe hemophilia A drug candidate valrox and its achondroplasia treatment vosoritide. Both of these drugs have blockbuster sales potential. So, if you're willing to buy in this moody market, BioMarin should probably be at the top of your list.
