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The big pharmaceutical companies have always tended to generate a somewhat mixed response when discussed in the wider context of stock picking.
The sector has had a fairly unremarkable few years, dominated largely by the likes of the big guns of Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, which accounted for about a third of total revenue in the sector in 2019. The publicity that pharma has had hasn’t been particularly positive, with scandals over price-gouging hitting headlines.
In terms of success, it’s not always about the share price performance, and that’s certainly true of big pharma this year, especially considering the impact of Covid-19 and the potential for further advances in the messenger RNA technology used in some vaccines.
12/18/2020 9:20:06 AM GMT
The big pharmaceutical companies have always tended to generate a somewhat mixed response when discussed in the wider context of stock picking.
Usually viewed through the lens of being defensive and boring, their PR in recent years hasn’t been particularly positive, with accusations of price gouging as far back as the 2016 Presidential election campaign when Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton pledged to rein in the sector after an outcry over the CEO of Mylan who gradually hiked prices on EpiPen’s to the tune of 461%, from $56.64 to $317.82, since acquiring the rights in 2007.
Mylan also hiked prices on a range of other products and it is a form of behaviour that is quite common on various drugs, where there is little or no alternative.