Biotechs belted

Biotech stocks got walloped today (September 21) after a startup pharmaceutical company named Turing Pharmaceuticals boosted the price of a drug overnight from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. It's a 62-year-old drug for treating life-threatening parasitic infections that affects some AIDS and cancer patients.

Turing is headed by Martin Shkreli, a young, former hedge-fund popinjay who defended the price leap and said he has no plans to rescind it. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton denounced the move as price-gouging. Candidate Bernie Sanders also chimed in against it.

Biotech stocks got hit hard. They had been on a long run-up and this spring began returning to earth.

Among San Diego biotechs, Halozyme Therapeutics dropped 4.96 percent to $18.22; Illumina dropped 4.16 percent to $200.19; ISIS Pharmaceuticals plunged 7.99 percent to $50.20; La Jolla Pharmaceutical plummeted 8.42 percent to $38.18; Ligand Pharmaceuticals dropped 3.96 percent to $97.90; and Neurocrine Biosciences got machine-gunned 8.6 percent to $50.18.