NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 13, 2017 / U.S. markets pulled back Thursday after President Trump's news conference failed to give investors clear details on his fiscal spending plans. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index posted declines of 0.32 percent and 0.21 percent, respectively, while the NASDAQ dropped 0.29 percent, breaking its streak of five consecutive record closes.

The President's news conference "failed to provide the much-needed clarity on future fiscal policies," said Lukman Otunuga, a research analyst for FXTM. "The lack of details of the president-elect's administration's plans for economic stimulus simply left dollar bullish investors empty-handed. It seems likely that dollar sensitivity intensifies this month as the renewed Trump uncertainty keeps investors on edge."

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Healthcare and Biotech stocks were hit the hardest Wednesday after President Trump stated drug makers were "getting away with murder" and pledged to "save billions of dollars" by bidding on drugs. Prescription drugs cost the U.S. health-care system $324.6 billion in 2015, up 9 percent from 2014, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Biocept Inc. (NASDAQ: BIOC)

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Biocept's shares dropped 21.40 percent to close at $2.13 a share Thursday. The stock traded between $2.00 and $2.40 on volume of 7.79 million shares traded. Biocept, Inc. is a molecular diagnostics company with commercialized assays for lung, breast, gastric, colorectal and prostate cancers, and melanoma. On January 10^th, the company announced that it secured an in-network provider agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the largest health benefit provider in the state.

"It is gratifying that health plans are seeing the value of our liquid biopsy approach for profiling and monitoring important cancer biomarkers," said Michael Nall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Biocept. "Partnering with health insurers is a major focus of our business strategy, as it may increase physician access to this non-invasive technology for their patients and provide timely adjudication of claims for patients. Securing this in-network agreement is an important milestone for Biocept, as Texas is one of our largest markets and BCBSTX is the largest provider in that state. With this agreement, the number of patients with in-network access to our tests has grown to approximately 185 million, with some members having access via multiple plans."

Apricus Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: APRI)

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Apricus Biosciences' shares dropped 10.73 percent to close at $1.58 a share Thursday. The stock traded between $1.55 and $1.77 on volume of 343,610 million shares traded. On December 27^th, the company announced the launch of Vitaros, Apricus' novel on-demand topical cream for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, in Lebanon by Elis Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Richard Pascoe, Chief Executive Officer of Apricus, commented, "We are pleased to announce the first launch of Vitaros by Elis and look forward to their performance in the highly attractive Middle East ED market, which they estimate at approximately $200 million. With this most recent launch, Vitaros is now commercially available in Lebanon, plus the existing nine EU countries. Moreover, we expect another ten or more product launches across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East during the first half of next year by our various commercialization partners. Looking forward, our key strategic goals continue to be achieving profitability through Vitaros revenue growth and obtaining Vitaros FDA approval in the United States in 2018."

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