NEW YORK — Stocks closed lower on Wednesday, led by sharp declines in health-care companies as outrage over the steep price hikes for Mylan’s EpiPens escalates.
Trading remains quiet overall with many investors still on vacation..
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 65.82 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,481.48. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 11.46 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,175.44 and the Nasdaq composite lost 42.38 points, or 0.8 percent, to 5,217.69.
Major indexes were down slightly for most of the day, and the losses deepened as a late-day sell-off in drugmakers dragged the broader market lower.
Outrage over Mylan’s price increases for its EpiPen product continues to grow. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued a statement Wednesday calling Mylan’s price increases “outrageous” and called for the company to reduce its prices.
EpiPens are medical devices designed to deliver adrenaline to a patient suffering from a potentially fatal allergic reaction. Allergy sufferers often have to carry more than one because they always need to be close by in case of an emergency. Mylan, which bought the rights to the product in 2007, has raised the price from roughly $100 for two pens to roughly $600.
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