Related: July Could Be a Volatile Month for Pharma ETFs
The sale comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is already lambasting the pharmaceutical industry for the rising costs associated with prescription drugs, notably his criticism of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. This could give pause to other drug companies when it comes to further price raising.
“By putting pressure on one particular company, I think all the companies are saying: We don’t want to be Pfizer,” said Sarissa Capital Management chief investment officer Alex Denner. “Even if they maybe raise prices in a different way – if they typically raise prices in a different way or do it on a different subset of products, they’re going to be thinking twice.”
Nonetheless, industry experts feel that government pressure to lower the cost of prescription drugs is simply par for the course and that drug companies will simply move forward even if prices do eventually come down as a result of governmental regulation.
If history repeats itself and drug prices continue to rise in “business as usual” fashion, then PILL could stand to benefit–the difference being that it could benefit three times over with respect to its other pharma ETF peers–and that could rid any headaches investors are experiencing with their portfolios. PILL is up 16.39% year-to-date per Yahoo! Finance performance numbers.
For more market trends in pharma ETFs, click here.