Just to mess things up.
But things were going the right away.
Are they sure the decline is not entirely due to the ready availability of Narcan? Here in Michigan, there are organizations that hand out Narcan, free, to anyone who wants it.
Steve
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Depends on the state. Some states require a prescription which is hard to get if you are overdosing.
In other states, Narcan is everywhere. EMTs certainly have it. And you are not surprised to find it in First Aid kits many places.
Re: We need a new drug war
Looks like that is not on the agenda of the administration. Negotiated prescription drug prices was a good beginning but is not being mentioned.
More likely to be addressed as part of the border agenda to stop arrival of illegal drugs. Or perhaps a tougher crime bill.
I think RFKjr’s appointment was a declaration of war on drugs.
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Legal drugs?
LOL
20lol
You noticed that too? I proposed, a week or two back that, just because the law may require Medicare “negotiate”, nothing says the “negotiating” needs to be aggressive. I’ll pass judgement on the “safety and efficacy” of my new position in MRK in 6 months to a year.
Steve
Or a sop to the conspiracy nutters that haven’t gotten over their employer requiring them to be vaxed against covid.
Steve
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A memory jogger for me…primarily for @WendyBG. I know you don’t need telling, but be sure to keep the post op pain management under control. Husband made a couple of flubs the first few days and, because the tylenol and Oxycodone were separated, he tried tylenol alone…and found out the hard was that it wasn’t enough. As the pain returned (but not too bad), his first, involuntary, reaction was to breathe a little more shallowly. Next thing, alarms go off as O2 sat dropped, BP rose, and he developed Afib. Fixed that…but I think same thing happened the next day as he slept through his scheduled dose.
Additionally…and this is something I learned from my orthopedist’s office…see if you can have your out patient pain meds actually in the house for you to come home to. When husband was discharged, he got his last in-patient pills before we left and the rest had been called into our local pharmacy. No problem…or so I thought. We hit traffic on the way home so ate into his “medicated time”, got him tucked up and comfy in bed (no easy task) and nipped out to pick up his meds.
They weren’t available. Apparently, the insurance company required pre authorisation. Can’t imagine why I had the gumption, given how worked up I was, but I asked if this was just an insurance company decision not to pay (as opposed to not getting the meds dispensed). It was the former, so I paid up…quite modestly priced…and got back in time to dose my man before the pain started up. Still, a time wasting kerfuffle and it may not happen to you but forewarned, and all that …
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And drug company share prices are down as investors worry abt RFK Jr. Is it time to sell? Or is this a buying opportunity?
I’m fairly certain it was a declaration of war on sanity.
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Depends if there is the great reversion to negative st deviations below the historic trend line for equities…then now is a bad time to buy.
I am thinking the druggies are selling off on margin pressure due to Medicare negotiating prices, as allowed by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Several parts of that legislation are in the crosshairs now. Share prices have been falling for several months, so I suspect more concern about Medicare, than Kennedy.
Merck tanked, in spite of reporting solid numbers on July 30th. That was just as Medicare started the first round of price negotiation, including Januvia, a diabetes med produced by Merck. Januvia was discounted 79%, the largest discount obtained from any of the drug companies in that round.
AstraZeneca peaked on 8/30, at $87.62. It closed yesterday at $63.23. AZ gave Medicare a 68% discount on Farxiga.
Steve
1 Like
Oh baloney. Of the hundreds of drugs on your pharmacist’s shelf and the thousands which are legally prescribed, Medicare is allowed to negotiate a total of 10. Ten. Total. But maybe they’re looking forward to 2027, when it’s: 15.
If that’s really the reason then I’m all in on pharma, because once those investors wake from their stupor the price will skyrocket.
Or more likely: it’s something else.
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OK. If Medicare negotiating prices is a nothingburger, let’s hear your theory why Merck and A-Z, to pick a couple, deliver good numbers, and the share price rots off.
Steve
Or just uncertainty on what the future will bring. Uncertainty makes institutions and individuals less likely to buy.
DB2
Well, August was when Kennedy endorsed Trump. But who would think, at that time, that he was anything more than another character in the campaign clown show?
But then, TFG knows how to pander to his base. In 2020-21, I saw my former coworkers on FB howling about masks, and sanitizer, and the covid vax. The biggest laffer was the people in the military. You get an extensive battery of immunizations when you enlist, and you have no choice in the matter. Everything was fine, until DoD wanted everyone vaxed against covid. Then there was a huge uproar. I have read of people being discharged because they were so determined to NOT have the covid vax, even though they had lined up with everyone else for all the other shots when they enlisted. So, TFG mined that anger.
What will happen? Bobby might get a national ban on fluoride being added to city water. He might get a national ban on mandatory childhood vacations. School vax programs are pretty porous now, witness the wave of measles currently going around, overwhelmingly among unvaccinated kids.
Trying to ban mandatory vax in the military will be a laffer. Ever live on a Navy ship, and experience how closely packed together people are? I have.
But it’s all for show. I would be very, very, surprised if big pharma took a hit.
Steve
1 Like
I agree. That said, Moderna was down 20% this week.
DB2
iirc, Moderna is best know for a covid vax. The covid vax seems to be at the core of the base’s vax hate. Pfizer, the other early entrant in producing a covid vax is now at a 10 year low. The base hates the covid vax. The rest of the folks, who want the vax, now need to pay for it. That’s going to hurt volume, and put a lot of pressure on PFE’s numbers.
