Wells Fargo says Trump speech today won’t be end of drug pricing proposals

Wells Fargo analyst David Maris notes that Politico and other media outlets are reporting that President Donald Trump will propose several new initiatives to address high drug prices when he speaks later today at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Maris thinks Trump’s focus will be on how other countries are “freeloading” on U.S. innovation with lower negotiated pricing, stating that news reports make it appear that the administration is targeting the industry for action, rather than other countries to raise their spending. While Maris acknowledges the timing of the speech being near the mid-term elections, he believes these proposals are simply the follow-though of earlier promises. He also expects this is not the end of proposals to address the issue of U.S. drug pricing. Publicly traded large-cap drugmakers include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY).
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2811041