With many Australian biotechnology companies reporting record revenue and profit, the only obvious correlation with the fall in the February Biotech Daily Top 40 Index (BDI-40) index and the four Big Caps, is the chaos and uncertainty in the United States.

The widely reported sackings and re-hirings, as well as the views of the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Junior on vaccines and other drugs, appear to have caused investors to sell Australian biotechnology shares.

In February, the collective value of the four Big Caps - Cochlear, CSL, Pro Medicus and Resmed (which are not included in the BDI-40) – fell 7.6 percent to $225,238 million.

Cochlear led the falls, down 17.6 percent to $17,195 million, Resmed shed 7.6 percent to $54,517 million, vaccine and blood products manufacturer CSL lost $9.4 billion or 6.95 percent to $126,034 million, with Pro Medicus down 3.2 percent to $27,492 million.

The month saw the BDI-40 lose 3.1 percent; the ASX200 fell 4.2 percent and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI) slipped 0.3 percent.

Just 10 BDI-40 companies were up, with seven up by more than 10 percent. Twenty-eight fell, with 16 down by more than 10 percent, while two were unchanged for the month.

Again, Telix added the most to the total - $591 million – passing the $10 billion market valuation, but the percentage best was Actinogen from a much lower base, up 47.1 percent to $125 million, followed by Imugene (39.1%), Percheron (33.3%), Nanosonics (32.1%), Alcidion (30.1%), Syntara (17.1%) and Starpharma (13.6%).

Mesoblast lost $763 million, but Cyclopharm led the percentage falls – down $89 million or 36.0 percent to $258 million, followed by Polynovo (30.7%), 4D Medical (27.4%), Prescient (20.45%), Mesoblast (19.6%), Impedimed (19.4%), Universal Biosensors (19.2%), Orthocell (17.2%), Paradigm (16.2%), Proteomics (15.5%), Resonance (14.8%), Micro-X (13.0%), Immutep (12.8%), Amplia (11.8%), SDI (11.2%), and Opthea (10.15).

Cannabis Corner lost Medlab Clinical and the collective value of the 10 companies fell 7.5 percent in February to $258 million, down 18.4 percent from one year ago.

Avecho was up 120 percent in the weeks ahead of today’s announced Sandoz deal to $22 million, Inhalerx was up 25 percent from $4 million to $5 million, Little Green was up 24.2 percent to $41 million and Vitura rose 11.1 percent to $50 million.

In the US, Neuphoria (Bionomics) jumped 250% to $28 million on a Merck & Co payment, Queensland’s Protagonist edged up 2.5 percent to $3,718 million, Kazia lost 42.9 percent to $8 million, Redhill (with Australian assets) fell 41.7 percent to $7 million, followed by Eyepoint (Psivida) down 18.0 percent and Incannex down 21.3 percent.