Heading into the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend in the U.S., investors who are focused on the biopharma sector will be thankful that the leading companies in the space had a great first half of the year because, since August, the combined stock valuations of those blue chip companies have slipped about 11 percent. With just over one month to go before the curtains are drawn on another year, the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index, a price weighted index comprising 21 of the leading biotech and big pharma companies by market cap, remains in positive territory, up 7 percent year to date (YTD).