Thursday, January 2, 2014

US Drug Corps Stock Prices Up 533% Under Obama

In two recent posts, I found 11 Health Insurance Corps and 9 Hospital and Health Care Related Services Corps which file their financial statements with the SEC, which had Pretax Income or Loss of more than $100 mil in any of the first three years of the Obama Administration (2009, 2010 or 2011) and which had their common stock trading on both January 16, 2009, the last day stocks were trading before President Obama took office, and also trading now or were acquired in the past 12 months.

These 11 Health Insurance Corps had an average stock price increase of an off-the-charts 245% since President Obama took office.  And these 9 Hospital and Health Care Related Services Corps had an average stock price increase of an even more off-the-charts 305% since President Obama took office.

In this post I turn my attention to all US Drug-Related Corps.  I found a huge number of 42 Drug-Related Corps which file their financial statements with the SEC, which had Pretax Income or Loss of more than $100 mil in any of the first three years of the Obama Administration (2009, 2010 or 2011) and which had their common stock trading on both January 16, 2009 which was the last day stocks were trading before President Obama took office or had their common stock first start trading in 2009 and also had their stock trading now or were acquired in the past 12 months.  I excluded all Drug Corps in the development stage or with minor amounts of Revenues.

These 42 Drug-Related Corps had an average stock price increase of an eye-popping 533% since President Obama took office.  This is 4.6 times the 117% increase in the S&P 500 Index over the same time period.  And only 1 of these 42 Drug Corps had a stock price decline so far during the Obama Administration.

It is easy to understand why financially savvy employees and investors in Drug-Related Companies are extremely happy with the Obama Administration.

The Stock Market is much smarter than any Democrat, any Republican or any Independent either in the US Congress or in the Obama Administration.  And with Drug Stocks up 533%, Hospital Stocks up 305% and Health Insurance Stocks up 245%, all during the first five years of the Obama Administration, it is pretty clear that the very perceptive Stock Market is signaling that nearly all Health Care Corps have done and will continue to do extremely well under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  And the Stock Market is also signaling that the ACA has been working quite effectively and will continue to work very well in the future.

When reviewing these Drug Companies by Drug Subsector, it is just amazing how incredibly high the stock price increases have been in all Drug Subsectors other than Big Pharma, which hasn't done badly either.

The 26 Other Large Drug Manufacturing Companies had an average stock price increase of 676% and even when I exclude Jazz Pharmaceutical's outsized stock price increase, the 25 Other Large Drug Manufacturing Companies had a still off-the-charts 317% average stock price increase so far during the Obama Administration.  Of all US Drug Subsectors, this is the one where you want to see very robust earnings growth and stock price appreciation.....this maximizes good-paying US jobs and US economic growth.    

The 5 Drug Wholesalers had an incredible 544% average stock price increase so far during the Obama Administration.  This is not where the country should be.  Clearly, the ACA shouldn't be rewarding drug wholesalers so much.  Their excessive profits have been and will continue substantially adding to US Health Care Costs.

And the 5 Retail Drug and Proprietary Stores Companies had an off-the-charts 327% average stock price increase so far during the Obama Administration.  This also is not where the country should be.  Just like Drug Wholesalers, the ACA is inappropriately rewarding drug retailers way too much.  Their excessive profits have been and will continue substantially adding to US Health Care Costs.

Instead the goal should be to bring down substantially US Health Care Costs.

It would make a lot more sense to find wise ways to bring down these Drug Company excess profits.

One wise way would be to let Medicare negotiate drug prices with Drug Companies.

A second wise way would be to permit US citizens to buy substantially cheaper drugs from outside the US.

A third wise way would be to assess ACA Beneficiary Fees on all drug sales of Drug Manufacturers, of Drug Retailers, and particularly so of Drug Wholesalers and use some of the money raised here to increase substantially Federal Government and University Basic Research investments on a vast range of critical Health Care issues, and perhaps use some of the money raised to reduce ACA Beneficiary Fees a bit on sales of Medical Devices.

A fourth wise way would be to close some of the many tax loopholes used by Drug Companies, particularly their abusive income shifting, and use some of the proceeds to give even larger, timely, permanent US job-creating Research and Experimental Tax Credits.  The current US Congress process of annually giving R&E tax credits retroactively has to be one of the dumbest things ever done by the US Congress.  You should give tax incentives to change future economic behavior, not to reward something much after it has already happened. 

Below here are the common stock prices for each of these 42 Drug-Related Corps on December 31, 2013 or when the company was acquired and also on January 16, 2009 or the first day the stock started trading in early 2009.



Stock Stock %

State Price Price Increase

HQs 12-31-13 1-16-09 (Decrease)
Drug Companies










Big Pharma Manufacturers



Bristol Myers Squibb NY $53.15 $22.07 141%
Merck NJ $50.05 $28.19 78%
Pfizer NY $30.63 $17.50 75%
Abbott Labs IL $38.33 $23.89 60%
JNJ NJ $91.59 $57.44 59%
Eli Lilly IN $51.00 $38.13 34%






Average Increase:  all 6 Big Pharma Manufacturers


75%






Other Large Drug Manufacturers


Jazz Pharmaceuticals CA $126.56 $1.30 9635%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals NY $275.24 $17.36 1485%
Salix Pharmaceuticals NC $89.94 $8.50 958%
Questcor Pharmaceuticals CA $54.45 $6.71 711%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals CT $132.88 $18.75 609%
Actavis NJ $168.00 $24.68 581%
Perrigo MI     53,110.00     11,450.00 364%
Impax Laboratories CA $25.14 $5.84 330%
Mylan PA $43.40 $11.00 295%
Par Pharmaceuticals NJ $49.98 $12.93 287%
ViroPharma PA $49.85 $13.38 273%
United Therapeutics MD $113.08 $31.37 260%
Celgene NJ $168.97 $50.25 236%
Medicis Pharmaceuticals AZ $43.98 $14.32 207%
Endo Health Solutions PA $67.46 $22.27 203%
Cubist Pharmaceuticals MA $68.87 $23.25 196%
Theravance CA $35.65 $12.41 187%
Allergan CA $111.08 $40.67 173%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals MA $74.30 $30.75 142%
Nektar Therapeutics CA $11.35 $4.70 141%
Forest Labs NY $60.03 $25.76 133%
Warner Chilcott NJ $22.93 $13.78 66%
Arena Pharmaceuticals CA $5.85 $3.70 58%
Hospira IL $41.28 $27.04 53%
Intermune CA $14.73 $10.08 46%
Rigel Pharmaceuticals CA $2.85 $7.34 -61%






Average Increase:  all 26 Other Large Drug Manufacturers

676%






Drug Wholesalers



Nu Skin Enterprises UT $138.22 $10.14 1263%
Herbalife Ltd CA $78.70 $10.52 648%
McKesson CA $161.40 $41.21 292%
AmeriSource Bergen PA $70.31 $18.71 276%
Cardinal Health OH $66.81 $19.64 240%






Average Increase:  all 5 Drug Wholesalers


544%






Retail Drug & Proprietary Stores


Rite Aid PA $5.06 $0.43 1077%
CVS Caremark RI $71.57 $26.83 167%
Express Scripts MO $70.24 $26.63 164%
Omnicare KY $60.36 $27.97 116%
Walgreens IL $57.44 $26.91 113%






Average Increase:  all 5 Drug Retailers


327%






Average Increase:  all 42 Drug Companies


533%