• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

He worked 100-hour weeks to save a nearly bankrupt boat company. At 83, he’s just turned down $400 million for it—and gave it all to charity instead

2

Costco's $14 million email settlement: Who qualifies for an up-to $500 payment and how to claim before the Aug. 24 deadline

3

Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax was designed to hit the wealthy, but it’s sending most New Yorkers to their estate lawyers

1

He worked 100-hour weeks to save a nearly bankrupt boat company. At 83, he’s just turned down $400 million for it—and gave it all to charity instead

2

Costco's $14 million email settlement: Who qualifies for an up-to $500 payment and how to claim before the Aug. 24 deadline

3

Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax was designed to hit the wealthy, but it’s sending most New Yorkers to their estate lawyers
Health

Biotech Stocks Plunge After Trump Says Pharma Is ‘Getting Away With Murder’ on Drug Prices

By
Sy Mukherjee
Sy Mukherjee
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Sy Mukherjee
Sy Mukherjee
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 11, 2017, 2:30 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

A version of this essay appears in today’s edition of the Fortune Brainstorm Health Daily. Get it delivered straight to your inbox.

President-elect Donald Trump’s Wednesday morning press conference was always going to be a must-watch event on the heels of bombshell (and unverified) claims about his close ties to Russia and other, far more lewd allegations. But few would have expected Trump to launch into a tirade against the pharmaceutical industry early on in the presser, sending biotech shares and indices plunging across the board.

Here’s what Trump said:

We have to get our drug industry coming back. Our drug industry has been disastrous. They’re leaving left and right. They supply our drugs but they don’t make them here, to a large extent. And the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry, because they’re getting away with murder. Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists, a lot of power. And there’s very little bidding on drugs. We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet we don’t bid properly. We’re going to start bidding. We’re going to save billions of dollars over a period of time.

There’s a whole lot rolled into one statement there. Trump appears to be simultaneously criticizing inversion mergers that shift drug companies’ tax domiciles overseas, pharma’s tactic of using manufacturing plants in European, Asian, and African countries, and high drug prices.

Click here to subscribe to Brainstorm Health Daily, our brand new newsletter about health innovations.

That last bit on introducing competitive bidding and direct price negotiations (presumably in Medicare) is what’s giving the industry some serious heartburn today. Just how bad was the damage? The NASDAQ Biotech Index is down 3.5%; S&P’s biotech ETF is down 4%. Big cap biotechs like Biogen, Celgene, and others are all down anywhere from 2% to 4%.

The biopharma sector largely rejoiced when Trump won his surprise victory in November. There was a sense that Trump would be far less hostile on issues like drug prices compared with Hillary Clinton despite the fact that Trump did advocate for competitive bidding during the campaign. (One notable exception: Allergan chief Brent Saunders, who warned that Trump’s populism could make the industry a target and that drug makers should begin to limit their own price hikes to fend off more stringent regulations.) Surely, the Republican staffers surrounding the new president-elect would keep him in check on the issue, the thinking went.

So much for that. Of course, words are just words, and implementing price negotiations and competitive bidding is no easy feat in a GOP-controlled Congress. But it seems biopharma’s post-election sigh of relief may have been premature.

About the Author
By Sy Mukherjee
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Health

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Health

tb
North AmericaRestaurants
Taco Bell’s quick action on removing lettuce, $1 Mexican Pizza special work to win over diners, investors
By Dee-Ann Durbin and The Associated PressJuly 30, 2026
2 hours ago
Photo of two polar bears
Environmentclimate change
Polar bears roll in beds of ice cubes at Prague Zoo as Europe battles record heat
By The Associated PressJuly 30, 2026
3 hours ago
mold
HealthCDC
‘Kind of the first time we’ve had an estimate like this’: first CDC study on mold finds it’s much deadlier than we thought
By Mike Stobbe and The Associated PressJuly 30, 2026
4 hours ago
f
CommentaryPandemic
Dr. Fauci, the Lockdown Czar, just won’t go away
By Steve H. HankeJuly 29, 2026
19 hours ago
f
North AmericaWhite House
Beyond the Covid origins: Fauci’s pandemic diary reveals a starstruck Julia Roberts and Trump gasping for oxygen
By The Associated PressJuly 29, 2026
19 hours ago
f
LawCongress
RFK says he found Fauci’s diary in government archives as Fauci invokes the Fifth Amendment over 100 times
By Lauran Neergaard, Ali Swenson and The Associated PressJuly 29, 2026
20 hours ago

Most Popular

He worked 100-hour weeks to save a nearly bankrupt boat company. At 83, he’s just turned down $400 million for it—and gave it all to charity instead
Success
He worked 100-hour weeks to save a nearly bankrupt boat company. At 83, he’s just turned down $400 million for it—and gave it all to charity instead
By Preston ForeJuly 29, 2026
1 day ago
Costco's $14 million email settlement: Who qualifies for an up-to $500 payment and how to claim before the Aug. 24 deadline
Retail
Costco's $14 million email settlement: Who qualifies for an up-to $500 payment and how to claim before the Aug. 24 deadline
By Sydney LakeJuly 29, 2026
1 day ago
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax was designed to hit the wealthy, but it’s sending most New Yorkers to their estate lawyers
Real Estate
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax was designed to hit the wealthy, but it’s sending most New Yorkers to their estate lawyers
By Catherina GioinoJuly 30, 2026
10 hours ago
Millionaires are leaving the U.K. in droves thanks to tax hikes—but the CEO of $1 billion tax platform says it’s their ‘social responsibility’ to stay
Success
Millionaires are leaving the U.K. in droves thanks to tax hikes—but the CEO of $1 billion tax platform says it’s their ‘social responsibility’ to stay
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 29, 2026
1 day ago
Foreign buyers seem to be following Zohran Mamdani's cue — and fleeing American real estate
Economy
Foreign buyers seem to be following Zohran Mamdani's cue — and fleeing American real estate
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 29, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of July 29, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 29, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 29, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.