5/11/2018

DRUGS/HEALTHCARE/PHARMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday [5-11-18] blasted drugmakers and healthcare ‘middlemen’ for making prescription drugs unaffordable for Americans, but healthcare stocks rose as experts said the administration avoided taking aggressive and direct measures to cut drug prices. Trump said his administration would take aim at the ‘middlemen’ in the drug industry who became ‘very very rich,’ an apparent reference to health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. He also said the pharmaceutical industry is making an ‘absolute fortune’ at the expense of American taxpayers…Shares of the major U.S. companies in each of those sectors rose after the speech, with the S&P 500 healthcare sector .SPXHC, a broad gauge of large healthcare stocks, up 1.4 percent.”

-Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Trump blasts drugmakers, middlemen for high U.S. drug prices,” Reuters, May 11, 2018 11:31 am