PhRMA And Wall Street Analysts Weigh In On The Fate Of Health Reform
"Wall Street analysts expect either a much smaller health care overhaul push or no bill to emerge from Congress after President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on Wednesday," BusinessWeek reports. In a research note, Leerink Swann analyst John L. Sullivan wrote: "We couldn't help but think that health care reform was officially no longer the Washington imperative that soaked up so much newsprint over the last year." Citi analyst Charles Boorady says, "I think they know what to do, they just don't have the political willpower to reform health care, and so they're taking the populist approach that could make things worse instead of better" (Murphy, 1/28).
"The chairman of the drug industry's main trade group in the U.S. said the group 'hasn't withdrawn support' for the version of health-care reform passed by the Senate, but that the Massachusetts election has 'thrown everything up in the air a bit,'" The Wall Street Journal reports. "David Brennan, chief executive of drug company AstraZeneca PLC and the current chairman of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, said 'it's difficult to say right now' whether the industry's key pledge for reducing health-care costs will remain in place" (Whalen, 1/28).