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CNBC.com Barack Obama |
As of October 27th, the pharmaceuticals/health products sector (that's how the Center for Responsive Politics classifies it) gave nearly $1.7 million to the Democratic presidential nominee.
Senator John McCain may be the other major party candidate, but the Republican took in even less money than Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton collected from the drugmakers during her abbreviated run for the White House. McCain got $579,000 to Clinton's $595,000. Observers, analysts and pundits say that doesn't necessarily mean the companies think the Dems will be better for their business, but that they're just betting on the favorite to try to ensure they've got a voice in the next administration.
As of October 19th, Pfizer[PFE
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], Amgen,[AMGN
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] Johnson & Johnson [JNJ
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]and GlaxoSmithKline [GSK
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]had each donated more than a million bucks to candidates and campaigns during this year's election cycle but unlike the computer industry none of the major drug names had forked over enough money to Obama or McCain to get onto the top-20 list of biggest givers.
In a research note to clients this week, JPMorgan big pharma analyst Chris Schott writes, "Interestingly, over the last three decades, the (pharma) group has performed inline with the market in the month following, as well as six months following elections that favored Democrats, on average." Miller Tabak healthcare analyst Les Funtleyder adds, "With respects to stocks, we are assuming the similar pattern to what occurred from the Clinton (attempted healthcare) reform, stocks will over-react to negative rhetoric but when the reality of what is accomplishable in the near-term becomes evident (sometime in 2Q '09) the sector should see a tailwind, though as is always the case individual stocks will be driven by individual fundamentals."
JP Morgan analysts, along with a couple of beltway healthcare policy insiders from both sides of the aisle, are even doing a conference call for clients tomorrow morning to talk about the election's potential impact on the industry.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes