NEW YORK -- Shares of U.S. biotechnology companies jumped more than 10 percent Wednesday after President Clinton reassured the industry that its commercial discoveries could be patented.

Last month, confusion over a joint statement from Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair led to concern that research into the human genome -- the recipe book of genes that form a person -- would have to be made freely available to a wider community of researchers.

That wider distribution, investors feared, would hurt profits of individual companies that had discovered, and were trying to patent, commercial uses of genes.

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"If someone discovers something that has a specific commercial application, they ought to be able to get a patent on it," Clinton said at the White House on Wednesday.

"I think he was made aware that his early remarks had been taken negatively and were hurting (the industry)," said Matt Geller, a biotech analyst with CIBC World Markets Corp.

"I think he wanted to make it clear that the government wants to foster this research," he said.

Wednesday's announcement helped the sector regain ground lost since that earlier announcement.

The Nasdaq biotech index, which includes more than 200 U.S. and European Companies, rose to 1113.61, up 10.39 percent in the early afternoon, leaving it about 25 percent higher than the beginning of the year.

In early March, the high-flying sector was up 80 percent from the end of 1999.

Biotech firm PE Corp. was up 44-3/4 to 118, the biggest percent gainer on the New York Stock Exchange.