Most multinational pharma concerns in the United States lost between two and four percent of their market capitalizations today. Why? Because of something I -- along with thousands of other voices -- have been saying for at least a year, now. Reform of Health Care Delivery in the US will include significant new reimportation initiatives -- long sought by the FDA -- primarily to drive down the cost of name brand prescription drugs, to a level more consistent with what the rest of the world pays. [We could talk, at length, about the largely perverse incentives -- in our reimbursement and insurance policies -- that drive this current state of affairs, but that is for another day.]
Almost comically, last summer, Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan was pretty darn sure his little planted pea pods would shoot up -- into golden, swaying stalks of corn. Um. . . Nope.
Not gonna' happen. No way. Here (at left) is the very short (see the text I've highlighted in lime-green) portion of page 68 from President Obama's budget document, released today, that caused the pharma market-sector correction, this afternoon. As ever, click it to enlarge -- to reading size.
. . . .The Budget supports FDA's efforts to allow Americans to buy safe and effective drugs from other countries. . . .
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