said in TrumpRx:
Interestingly Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi, and JnJ are all up today. Maybe they’re just screwing the retailers and the PBMs.
There seem to be two theories as to why big pharma stocks are up.
Theory A:
“This represents a win for” Pfizer, Akash Tewari, a Jefferies analyst, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday. He estimated that offering some new drugs at internationally comparable prices could cost Pfizer up to $723 million a year. That would amount to just over 1 percent of Pfizer’s $63.6 billion revenue last year.
Pfizer “may have done the rest of the industry a favor by giving a framework for a bespoke solution that we feel would be very tenable” for other big pharmaceutical companies and “would have a de minimis impact on their business going forward,” Tewari wrote.
Details on the pact are scant and terms remain confidential: of the three Pfizer drugs to be sold at discounts and announced at this week’s news conference, none are top sellers.
Many of the cuts Pfizer is promising are aimed at the government Medicaid program, which analysts say account for less than 5 percent of the company’s U.S. revenue. And Pfizer’s agreement to list discounted drugs for direct purchase on the president’s TrumpRx website resembles an initiative already being promoted by the industry.
Theory B:
A White House official characterized the rising Pfizer stock price as evidence that investors believe other countries will now “pay their fair share” as part of an international rebalancing of prices.
