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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (4397)	8/1/2001 3:00:48 PM
From: Biomaven	Respond to of 52153

tuck, I don't see the patients' "Bill of Rights" (I'm afraid "Bill of Goods" may be more accurate in the long run) as having that much impact on the pharma/biotech sector (as distinct from the managed care sector). I do expect it to lead to higher costs (where do proponents think the money for hundred million dollar punitive damage awards actually comes from?). Higher cost may lead to tightened budgets for drug purchases - expect more multi-level formularies. The only positives for pharma/biotech I can see are the talk of paying for some clinical trial expenses - we'll have to see the details on this to figure out what this actually means - and perhaps easier coverage for some off-label drugs for life-threatening diseases (like Actimmune from ITMN). Actually, speaking of Actimmune, seems like about 80% of people are actually getting insurance coverage - pretty amazing for an off-label use of a $50k+ drug. Where the likely alternative is a death-sentence and the doctors are behind the drug, seems like there is more flexibility in the system than I would have thought. For another fundamental non-event that will have a totally out-of-proportion impact on biotech stock prices, may I point you to the White House stem-cell imbroglio? Peter