While many people were surprised at Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Presidential race, the impact was substantial in terms of pharmaceutical stocks, which reportedly surged in Europe on Wednesday. According to Fortune, Trump’s victory led investors to believe the threat of tough action against pricing of pharmaceutical drugs had subsided.
News reports indicate that, following the victory, shares in major European drug manufacturers rose between two and six percent after news that a ballot initiative designed to slow the rise of prescription drugs in California was headed for defeat.
One analyst claimed that, while Trump made a pledge to repeal Obamacare, known by many as the Affordable Care Act, exactly how the president-elect would make good on his promise could weigh on pharma stocks in the coming months. Media reports indicate that repealing the healthcare act put in place during the Obama administration could potentially have chaotic consequences.
In Europe, healthcare was the largest division gainer following the Republican’s presidential win, with a gain of 3.5% in the Stoxx 600 healthcare. Some of the biggest gains in the industry included Novo Nordisk, a Danish insulin manufacturer whose diabetes drug prices have been under scrutiny in recent months in the U.S. News reports indicate the company experienced a six percent gain.
Other gains in the pharmaceutical industry included more than three percent for GlaxoSmithKline, over four percent for Roche and Novartis, and nearly 3.5% for Sanofi and AstraZeneca. Perhaps the biggest news of all was the increase in stock prices for Mylan, a U.S. drug manufacturer whose substantial increase in price to over $600 for a two-pack allergy shot (EpiPen) has been in the news recently.
While there is no way to determine what the future holds in terms of pricing for prescription drugs, Roche, the world’s largest manufacturer of cancer drugs located in Switzerland, maintains the company is focused on developing diagnostic tests and innovative medicines that will, in the future, continue to be supported and valued by the U.S.
REA JET provides pharmaceutical companies with reliable, trusted pharma marking systems that are cost-effective and designed to ensure correctly encrypted company codes, identify imitation pharmaceutical products, identify data structure errors, and more.