Thomson Reuters A pharmacy employee dumps pills into a pill counting machine as she fills a prescription while working at a pharmacy in New York
- Healthcare stocks are climbing after President Donald Trump's much anticipated speech on how to lower drug costs in the US.
- Trump called out industry middlemen and foreign countries for "freeloading."
- The administration's plan did not include any new restrictions on pharmaceutical companies or health insurance companies.
Healthcare companies breathed a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump spoke Friday about lowering drug prices and calling out the middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry. The much anticipated speech contained few specifics about any policy changes that may or may not take place, and sent healthcare stocks higher. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF is up more than 2%.
The Trump administration promised more flexibility to improve pricing negotiations, giving free generics to seniors, and mandating that plans pass along rebates to patients and putting a cap on out-of-pocket costs. While Trump expressed interest in negotiating drug prices, the government cannot do that for Medicare and Medicaid. The plan did not include any new restrictions on pharmaceutical companies or health insurance companies.
Some of the blame for high medical costs in the United States fell on foreign countries, and Trump called to end "global freeloading." The administration also floated the idea of having pharmaceutical ads include the prices for medications being advertised. He reiterated that the "middlemen" in the industry must be cut out, but the speech did not include any proposed plans on how to eliminate them.
Here's a look at the scoreboard as of 3:20 p.m. ET:
- CVS Health +3.8%
- UnitedHealth +1.7%
- Express Scripts +3.9%
- Walgreens Boot Alliance +0.8%
