Beaten Down Under Biden, Drug-Sector Hopes for New Start
The Wall Street Journal|January 21, 2025
The past two years have been punishing for the biotech and pharma space.
Beaten Down Under Biden, Drug-Sector Hopes for New Start

As Wall Street chased the artificial-intelligence boom, drugmakers were left behind, with pharma stocks trading at a major discount to the broader market. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, meanwhile, was basically unchanged last year despite huge gains for innovation counterparts in the tech sector.

Politics hasn't helped. After decades of wielding significant influence in Washington, the pharma lobby suffered a major blow when the Biden administration pushed through Medicare's drug-price negotiation law.

Now as Donald Trump takes office, the industry is cautiously optimistic that its fortunes might finally begin to shift-or at least not get any worse. At last week's annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, industry executives pointed to Trump's promises to cut taxes and to crack down on pharmacy-benefit managers as evidence that his policies might benefit the industry as a whole.

This story is from the January 21, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

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This story is from the January 21, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.