Posted by Michael Wonder on 11 Jan 2017
Drug stocks plunge as Trump threatens to force price bidding
11 January 2017 - ‘We’re going to save billions,’ Trump says of bidding plans.
Pharmaceutical and biotech stocks plummeted Wednesday as President-elect Donald Trump said he’d force the industry to bid for government business in order to save the government billions of dollars.
“They are getting away with murder. Pharma has a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power and there is very little bidding,” Trump said at a press conference in New York. “We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don’t bid properly and we’re going to save billions of dollars.”
The industry is the latest victim to a president who has made a habit of negotiating with industries via Twitter. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell 2.6% at 11:28 a.m. in New York, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences Index was down 1.7%.
