Trump cut deals with nine midsized drugmakers to link U.S. drug prices to cheaper ones abroad. Nine. Not Pfizer. Not Merck. Not Johnson & Johnson. Nine companies you've never heard of who probably make generic Lipitor and call it innovation.
The administration wants to benchmark American drug prices against foreign markets where governments negotiate like adults. Revolutionary stuff. Took us only seventy years to realize that Canada pays less for the same pills. Next we'll discover that buying in bulk saves money.
Midsized is doing heavy lifting here. These aren't the companies spending billions on R&D. These are the ones repackaging existing drugs and changing the pill color. They saw this deal coming and thought, "Sure, we'll sign. Beats getting subpoenaed."
The big pharma players watched from the sidelines. They know how this works. Let the small fish take the political heat. Let them pose for photos with bureaucrats. Then lobby Congress after the news cycle ends and kill the whole thing in committee.
Retail traders saw "drug pricing deals" and bought calls on biotech ETFs. They think regulation means opportunity. They think nine means momentum. They think midsized means undervalued. They're currently refreshing their portfolios wondering why XBI is flat.
The math is simple. These nine companies make up what, three percent of U.S. drug sales? Signing them accomplishes nothing except a press release. It's like negotiating a ceasefire with Lichtenstein during World War II. Technically progress. Functionally irrelevant.
The real drugmakers are still charging four grand for insulin while their European subsidiaries sell it for forty. They're not signing anything. They're too busy explaining to shareholders why linking prices to foreign markets would "stifle innovation" while their CEOs pull down eight-figure bonuses for discovering new ways to extend patents.
But sure, nine midsized companies solved healthcare. Put it on the vision board next to your Tesla shares.
Photo by ΓaΔlar Oskay on Unsplash
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