Stock prices for many U.S. pharmaceutical companies were down Tuesday after President Donald Trump used his Twitter account to launch a broadside against prescription drug prices.
“I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the drug industry,” Trump says on Twitter. “Pricing for the American people will come way down!”
Stock for Merck & Co. (ticker: MRK) fell 0.7 percent in morning trading, while Pfizer ( PFE) was down 0.93 percent. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. ( BMY) was off nearly 1.5 percent and Eli Lilly and Co. ( LLY) was off 1.4 percent.
Per usual with Trump’s Twitter policy statements, details on any “new system” for prescription drug prices were scarce. But Trump has stated in the past his administration will “negotiate” with so-called big pharma companies to bring prescription drug prices down. In fact, the president highlighted the issue in his speech to a joint session of Congress last week.
[See: 7 of the Best Health Care Stocks to Buy for 2017.]
“We should work to bring down the artificially high prices of drugs, and bring them down immediately,” he told lawmakers.
In a Washington rarity, the prescription drug issue is very much a bipartisan one, amplified by a robust round of applause from both sides of the political aisle in his speech to Congress.
With drug prices “out of control” according to a policy statement from the American Association of Retired Persons (in the U.S., prices of brand-name prescription drugs increased almost 130 percent faster than inflation did in 2015 alone, AARP reports), negotiations could heat up fast between the Trump White House and big pharmaceutical companies.
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Trump’s Tweet on Drug Competition Sends Pharma Stocks Down originally appeared on usnews.com
