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Strategies & Market Trends : Point and Figure Charting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis J. who wrote (12709)	1/13/1999 4:56:00 AM
From: Jim Battaglia	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34812

Shares of large U.S. drug companies began slipping Friday, hurt by profit taking and concern about proposed changes to the Medicare payment system. It's profit-taking; I don't think anything major is happening to the fundamentals of the drug group. U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies on average saw their stock valuations increase by about 40 percent in 1998, spurred higher by spirited sales of newer prescription drugs. Friday's selloff of major drug company stocks might be a delayed reaction to significant Medicare changes proposed by the 17-member National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, chaired by U.S. Sen. John Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat. Members of the commission on Wednesday recommended that the federal government offer a fixed amount of money to each Medicare beneficiary to buy private health insurance, a change from the current practice of paying separately for each medical service. Under the proposal, Medicare for the first time would cover prescription drugs for many beneficiaries. That change, if adopted, could put some pressure on drug companies that the government and patients alike might then pay increased attention to drug pricing. Jim