SW Michigan drug companies, biotech firms may benefit from reform legislation

Drug companies and biotech firms may be positioned to make money under health-care reform legislation, the Detroit Free Pree reports.Drug companies and biotech firms may be positioned to make money under health-care reform legislation, the Detroit Free Pree reports. The March 28 story says that money managers are seeing the potential for such companies to benefit from the changes to health care, and it quotes Pfizer as one company that’s eyeing the potential. Excerpt:Wall Street didn’t collapse into rubble once President Barack Obama signed the landmark bill to begin widespread changes in health insurance. Could that mean that somebody will admit there’s money to be made in the sweeping reforms we’ll see in the next few years? You bet. Rick Chambers, a spokesperson for Pfizer in Kalamazoo, said much depends on how details are worked out. But he said Pfizer — which employs about 3,000 people in Michigan, mostly in Kalamazoo County — is optimistic that the reforms will preserve the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to develop new drugs and bring them to market. Chambers noted that tens of millions of people who could not afford health care will have a means to access treatment — including medicine. Standard & Poor’s Equity Research issued a report that listed biotechnology firms and generic drug manufacturers among winners from the health care legislation. “Representing the first choice in drug therapy, inexpensive generics should be prime beneficiaries of new pharmaceutical business resulting from the extension of new health coverage for 32 million presently uninsured,” wrote the S&P Equity Research team led by analyst Jeffrey Loo. The report noted some negatives for the managed-care industry — including an end to denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions. For more on the winners, read the rest of story. Source: Detroit Free Press