Stock Watch: When Development Goes Too Far

With drug sector indexes underperforming the broad market in the first half of 2025, investors may have been anticipating tariff-related and other headwinds. But impending loss of exclusivity on key products may be provoking more anxiety at this point.

Pharma company financial guidance emerged largely unscathed from a first quarter punctured by a weakening US dollar and threats of import tariffs on drugs. With other pressures either already evident or on the horizon, guidance revisions may be unavoidable.

Relaxing CAR-T restrictions may not be an access panacea because of patient fragility and lack of payer incentive. Conversely, the ACIP’s recent recommendation on Thiomersal-containing flu vaccines is probably the thin edge of a more restrictive wedge.

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