Big Pharma Stocks Drop After RFK Jr. Announced as Health Secretary

Stocks tied to Big Pharma have dropped since it was announced that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been nominated to be America’s next Health Secretary.
Kennedy Jr., who is part of a political dynasty with an a former president uncle and a father as a former attorney general, is an outspoken opponent of Big Pharma.
The Health Secretary nominee has at times attributed America’s health problems to insufficient regulation of pesticides, harmful additives, seed oils, processed foods and vaccines.
Following President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he was nominating Kennedy Jr. to head the health department, five major pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines saw a drop in stock market valuation.
Moderna stock dropped by 5.62 percent in one day when the markets closed on Wednesday, at a price of $39.77, down from $42.14 the previous day.
When the markets opened on Thursday, the price had dropped even lower—to $38.47.
There was also a drop in the price of Pfizer stocks, which decreased by 2.62 percent by the end of Wednesday, closing at a price of $26.02, slightly down from $26.72 the previous day.
Pfizer stocks continued to drop on Thursday, hitting a price of around $24.75 in the morning.
Most notably, the lowest point in the markets for Pfizer and Moderna came at around 3.30 p.m. in the afternoon on Wednesday, where Moderna had dropped by 7.9 percent and Pfizer dropped by 3 percent.
Novavax, another major vaccine producer, also saw its stocks drop on Wednesday, dropping by 7.02 percent at the end of the market day.
When the market reopened on Thursday, the stocks continued to drop, starting at a price of $7.15 after having opened at $8.44 on Tuesday.
There was also a fall in the market price of the BioNTech stock, a German vaccine manufacturer which helped Pfizer to develop its COVID-19 vaccine, which dropped by 7.10 percent by the end of the 24 hour period.
The German company’s stock dropped even lower on Thursday morning, with the market opening price at $99.75.
Another major pharmaceutical company, GSK, which is based in the United Kingdom and develops flu jabs, also fell by 2.05 percent on November 14, at a closing price of $34.39, down from $35.11.
The stock continued to drop on Thursday, reaching a low of $32.83 on Thursday morning.
The market comes as the RFK Jr.’s nomination has led to highlighting of his views on Big Pharma and his comment on his fear and distrust of vaccines.
While he does not have a medical degree, instead studying law in college, Kennedy Jr. built up the anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense.
At an event in December 2021 for the charity in a Southern California church, Kennedy Jr. said, “It is criminal medical malpractice to give a child one of these vaccines,” Associated Press reported.
The charity’s revenue reportedly doubled in 2020 when the pandemic hit, leaving the nonprofit with $6.8 million.
Children’s Health Defense has since become one of the most popular “alternative and natural medicine sites” in the world, according to AP.
While also being part of the anti-vaccine movement, Kennedy Jr. has also lashed out at Big Pharma saying he would “clean up corruption” in health agencies if appointed a role in Trump’s office, in an interview with NBC News. He also pledged he would “make America healthy again.”
As part of his plans to go after big pharmaceutical companies, over the weekend Kennedy Jr. said he also intends to terminate 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and replace them with a new group of workers.
He has also said he plans to clear out “entire departments” of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
His appointment therefore leaves a lot of uncertainty for the future of major organizations in pharmaceutical medicine, potentially prompting the drop in the stock market.
When announcing Kennedy Jr.’s appointment, Trump wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”
Trump has said that RFK Jr., who mounted his own independent campaign for president before dropping out and endorsing Trump, would have carte blanche to “go wild” on health-related matters if he became part of Trump’s Cabinet.
Newsweek has contacted Kennedy Jr. via email out of hours for comment.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact [email protected].