Since last month, when Trump nominated vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, the pharmaceutical industry in the usa has been shrouded in gloom. The latest news shows that the position of pharmaceutical companies in the next Trump administration is not as negative as expected.

According to local media reports on Thursday, Trump hosted a gathering at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday evening. $Pfizer (PFE.US)$ CEO Albert Bourla, $Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$ CEO David Ricks, as well as Steve Ubl, CEO of the pharmaceutical lobbying organization PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), also attended the meeting representing the broader industry.

In Trump's camp, Kennedy, incoming Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles, and Dr. Oz, nominated to lead the Centers for Medicare, were also present at the dinner with the elected president. It is reported that the dinner included a reception before the meal and lasted nearly three hours in total.

Last month on the 14th, after Trump announced that Little Kennedy would head the health affairs in the usa, the pharmaceutical industry experienced a collective plunge, continuing the downward trend since the election. $Pfizer (PFE.US)$ The stock price of approached its lowest level of the year.

In response to this report, a spokesperson for PhRMA confirmed that Ubel visited Mar-a-Lago, with pfizer and eli lilly and co not providing a response.

A spokesperson from Trump's camp stated: "After the historic victory, Trump continues to engage with leaders across industries to discuss his agenda for the next four years."

The outlook remains unclear.

Strictly speaking, the current situation of the pharmaceutical giants in the usa is not good either. The Biden administration has promoted the usa version of "pharmaceutical group purchasing," targeting widely used and highly profitable drugs like insulin. Trump had also promised to implement tougher measures on the pharmaceutical industry.

According to media reports, Trump discussed “how the public and private sectors can collaborate to find cancer treatments and other topics” with the pharmaceutical industry on Wednesday.

Certainly, for pharmaceutical companies, the biggest uncertainty is still small Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda, which Trump once promised would allow small Kennedy to "fully play his role" in health issues.

From small Kennedy's perspective, Americans are being massively poisoned by "big pharmaceutical companies and big food processing companies," and his goal is to launch an all-out battle against the rampant chronic disease issues in the USA—such as obesity and diabetes—once he takes office.

Indeed, part of small Kennedy's ideas—such as eliminating processed foods from school lunches, reducing intake of sugary beverages, and removing "food additives and pesticides that are not permitted in foreign countries"—is not too far from mainstream scientific opinion, but his approach is unlikely to be traditional.

Small Kennedy has stated he would solve the problem by replacing many employees of the institutions. On September 30, he said, "What we really do not need in the Department of Health and Human Services is more medical expertise. What we need is expertise on how to decouple the agency from institutional corruption, because it is corruption that distorts science."

He expressed the hope to fire every nutritionist at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

Small Kennedy is also a supporter of "drug alternatives." He has accused the FDA of waging a "war on public health," including the "radical suppression" of anything that promotes human health but cannot be patented by pharmaceutical companies.

In his ideal "prescription," in addition to prescription drugs from pharmaceutical companies, there should also be items like "healthy foods" and exercise, and he hopes that insurance and Medicaid can reimburse these costs.

Small Kennedy once stated, "When facing patients with diabetes or obesity, doctors should be able to recommend gym memberships and good foods, and Medicaid should fund those things just like it funds novo-nordisk a/s's weight loss drugs."

Editor/rice