Pharma giants’ stock prices hit by another Trump tweet

Donald Trump has pharma giants and their big-name investors reaching for aspirin again.

Shares of major drug companies tumbled Tuesday after the President tweeted: “I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry. Pricing for the American people will come way down!”

Cheaper drug prices did not immediately materialize, but cheaper stock prices for pharmaceutical companies did: The S&P 500 Healthcare Index was down 0.7 percent at Tuesday’s market close.

Scandal-ridden Valeant Pharmaceuticals — whose top three investors are John Paulson’s, Paulson & Co, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square and Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct — saw its shares drop 5.6 percent to $11.71 Tuesday, giving up roughly $240 million in market cap.

Paulson’s fund also got whacked by Mylan — the price-gouging owner of Epipen, in which it has a 3.9 percent stake — as shares fell 1.6 percent to $43.33 Tuesday.

The healthcare sector has climbed 10.6 percent since the election, but it has had a rocky ascent due in part to comments Trump has made in recent months on drug prices.

In January, Trump griped at a meeting with top pharma execs that “the pricing has been astronomical,” adding, “We have to do better.”

Johnson & Johnson as able to recoup its early losses Tuesday, but others ended the day negative territory. Pfizer and Allergan were both down slightly more than one percent, with Pfizer ending the day at $33.97 and Allergan at $239.52.