Today is the first day of the Winter of our very serious biotechnology discontent.

It has nothing to do with Australian taxation changes that don’t begin until next year. It has everything to do with Washington’s political chaos causing global financial turmoil.

The collective market capitalization of the four Big Caps of Cochlear, CSL, Pro Medicus and Resmed, which are not included in the Biotech Daily Top 40 Index (BDI-40), was at its lowest point since April 30, 2018, falling 12.4 percent in May to $108,411 million.

Cochlear was at its lowest market capitalization since April 30, 2016 and CSL was at its lowest since November 30, 2016. Pro Medicus and Resmed looked respectable by being at their lowest market capitalizations in two years.

CSL lost 22.6 percent to $46,737 million, in May, following interim chief executive officer Gordon Naylor’s 90-day review. Resmed fell 3.4 percent to $42,704 million, Pro Medicus shed 3.1 percent to $13,600 million, while Cochlear looked terrific recovering 3.6 percent from its 10-year low to $6,370 million – just a couple of billion dollars bigger than Telix.

In May, the BDI-40 fell 6.9 percent to a collective market capitalization of $17,565 million; the benchmark ASX200 was up 0.8 percent to 8,732 points; and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI) rose 2.2 percent to 5,990 points.

For the year to May 31, the ASX200 was up 3.5 percent, the NBI was up 46.85 percent, while the four Big Caps lost 51.25 percent and the BDI-40 fell 14.7 percent.

Just 10 companies were up, but eight were up by more than 10 percent; while 29 fell, with 19 down by more than 10 percent.

Prescient was May’s best, up $28 million or 51.85 percent to $82 million, followed by Polynovo (25.5%), Paradigm (13.0%), Imugene (11.6%), Syntara (10.9%), Neuren (10.7%), SDI (10.3%) and Aroa (10.1%).

Impedimed led the falls, down a further $13 million or 44.8 percent to $16 million, followed by Proteomics (41.0%), Lumos (29.6%), EBR (27.8%), Curvebeam (23.3%), Micro-X (21.1%), Dimerix (19.6%), Nova Eye (16.2%), 4D Medical (16.1%), Orthocell (14.4%), Clarity and Medical Developments (14.0%), Atomo (13.6%), Botanix (13.2%), Telix (13.1%), Resonance (13.0%), Cynata (11.7%), Amplia (10.4%) and Immutep (10.3%).

The 11 companies in Cannabis Corner were up 14.3 percent in May to $367 million and 62.4 percent for the year, led by Bioxyne, with three up, four down and four unchanged.

Outside the BDI-40, Artrya climbed 24.8 percent in May to $791 million, up 819.8 percent over 12 months; Pacific Edge soared 72.55 percent to $264 million on reimbursement coverage news, up 332.8 percent for the year; with Racura up 3.3 percent in May to $496 million, and up 123.4 percent for the year. All three are contenders for promotion. Cogstate, Echo IQ, Tetratherix and Vitrafy are being monitored closely, while Anteris and PYC have joined the $1 billion club.