Drug firms rally as Hillary Clinton’s price-control threats vanish

Drug shares rallied strongly on Wednesday on relief that the next American president will be Donald Trump and not Hillary Clinton.

The Democrat candidate had made threatening noises about targeting drug giants to lower prices — although Trump had also indicated that he wants to shake up the sector.

In London trading, Hikma Pharma was up 6.3% to 1767p, Shire rose 5.75p to 4779p and GlaxoSmithKline was 3% higher at 1598p.

Dr Julie Simmonds, the drug expert at Panmure Gordon, said: “Hillary Clinton made it clear that she was gunning for drug companies’ charges and was looking to expand Obamacare — hence the relief rally from European drug companies this morning.”

Clinton’s healthcare plan was likely to be expensive for drug companies.

A note from fund manager BlackRock also helped the shares. It said in a note to clients that healthcare stocks are likely to outperform the wider markets because of what they expect will be lower levels of regulation under Trump.

However, the incoming president had threatened to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a source of some uncertainty to the drug sector.

In New York, drug shares are down 15% in the past three months as the prospect of a Clinton victory seemed inevitable. A Republican Congress is likely to be kinder to the industry.