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Robert Kennedy jnr: Pharma investors brace for impact

Vaccine makers and companies manufacturing breakthrough obesity drugs saw share prices fall on nomination

Robert F Kennedy jnr is a threat to investors, especially those in vaccine and obesity drug manufacturers. Photograph: Rachel Woolf/The New York Times
Robert F Kennedy jnr is a threat to investors, especially those in vaccine and obesity drug manufacturers. Photograph: Rachel Woolf/The New York Times
Proinsias O'Mahony
Sun Nov 24 2024 - 06:00

* Donald Trump’s nomination of anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy jnr as US secretary of health and human services has provoked alarm in health circles, but he’s also a threat to investors – especially pharmaceutical investors.

Vaccine makers such as Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech and Novavax have tumbled. So too have Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, two companies that have benefited from soaring demand for new GLP-1 obesity drugs.

There has been huge excitement about anti-obesity drugs, but it appears Kennedy isn’t a fan, recently saying Novo is “counting on selling it to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs”.

Have investors overreacted? Yes, said Henrik Juuel of Danish vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic. “I don’t think these things will ever happen,” he told the Financial Times. “I don’t think anyone will allow them to. There must be some smart people advising [him].”

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One wonders how receptive a zealot such as Kennedy might be to the advice of “smart” people.

Of course, the US senate may not confirm Kennedy as health secretary. Unfortunately for investors, that looks unlikely. Betting on prediction market Polymarket gives Kennedy a 70 per cent chance of being confirmed, suggesting investors may need to brace for a turbulent period in healthcare policymaking.

* This article was edited on Tuesday, November 26th, 2024

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Proinsias O'Mahony

Proinsias O'Mahony

Proinsias O’Mahony, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes the weekly Stocktake column