It's been a tough day for health stocks since Donald Trump announced his appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a staunch vaccine skeptic — as health secretary.
The news, which came late in the day on Thursday, sent the shares of vaccine-makers sharply lower on Friday, with Moderna leading the losses, falling as much as 10%. Pfizer and Novavax both dropped 6% at intraday lows, while GSK lost 5%.
But the selling wasn't contained to just vaccine names. It spread into US-exposed European healthcare stocks, such as Novo Nordisk and Roche, which were down 5% and 3% at intraday lows, respectively.
The losses extend a days-long skid for the sector after the election results last week saw investors boost bets that Kennedy — a key Trump ally — would notch a cabinet role.
Since Election Day, Moderna has fallen more than 30%, while Pfizer has slid 11%. Those losses have stood in contrast to the rally enjoyed by the rest of the market, which has rallied on the hopes that Trump's lighter regulatory stance and corporate tax cuts could boost corporate earnings.
Kennedy has long railed against vaccines, once calling those that protect against Covid-19 a "crime against humanity." He has treaded more carefully in recent weeks, though, and has said he wouldn't outright ban vaccines.
"If vaccines are working for somebody, I'm not going to take that away. People ought to have choice," he told NBC after Trump's election.
Since Trump's election win, several analysts have downgraded their outlooks on vaccine stocks amid the rising uncertainty in the industry. Bank of America analysts lowered their price target on Moderna last week, from $110 to $90, partially citing uncertainty after Trump's election win, while Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Papadakis cut his rating on GSK to a hold after Kennedy's appointment.
"We consider vaccines to be amongst the greatest scientific achievements to impact public health: unfortunately this view is not shared by the nominee," Papadakis wrote in a client note seen by Bloomberg .
Formerly an environmental justice lawyer, Kennedy pivoted to running an anti-vaccine charity in recent years, and ran for president as an independent candidate in this election cycle. He dropped out to endorse Trump in August, which some sources reported was a bid to secure a position in the administration.
In his role as health secretary , Kennedy will have a top role in health policy in the US, but likely won't be able to actually control which vaccines children are required to get for school. That will remain up to individual states, but he could change vaccine requirements for federal employees or the US military.
That's if the Senate confirms his appointment, which some have said could be a close vote considering mixed reactions among policymakers so far.
Kennedy has also promoted removing fluoride from water supplies and overhauling federal food regulations, and has supported products like raw milk, which the Food and Drug Administration warns against.
He's also floated hopes to cut highly processed food from school lunches, which was a priority under the Obama administration.
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