Big Pharma stocks crumble after Trump taps RFK Jr. as HHS boss

The stocks for three pharmaceutical companies heavily involved in the production of vaccines fell drastically by market close on Thursday following President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he was appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Pharmaceutical company Moderna’s stock fell 5.6%, BioNTech dropped 7.1% and Novavax stock fell 7.2% before market close on Thursday, Axios reported. All three of the companies had raked in significant revenue from COVID-19 vaccines.

Moderna’s stock had been declining since peaking in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, but the sudden drop coincided with the announcement from Trump. As of two hours after the market opened on Friday, Moderna’s stock was down over 7%, while BioNTech’s stock was down 3.80% and Novavax stock was down 2.35%.

Trump officially announced Kennedy’s HHS role in a Thursday tweet, following speculation over what role he would land in the upcoming Trump administration due to his ardent support for the president-elect in the election after he ended his own bid. Kennedy faced criticism following the announcement, with several corporate media outlets slamming his stance on public health issues such as the effects of vaccines.

Kennedy has long been a vocal skeptic of certain vaccines, particularly the COVID-19 vaccine, which got him kicked off of the social media platform Instagram in 2021. Trump and Kennedy have pledged to “Make America Healthy Again,” by addressing public health issues including the public’s intake of unhealthy foods and the uptick in obesity rates in adults.

“It’s finally turning the page and saying, ‘We want a health system, not a disease system,’” Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “For 50 years we built a disease system.”

RFK Jr. originally made a bid in the presidential election as a third-party candidate but ended his campaign in August to endorse Trump. The president-elect said during an October podcast interview with Joe Rogan that major pharmaceutical companies were not “thrilled” about his teaming up with RFK Jr., and members of Kennedy’s family have criticized his endorsement of Trump.

The Kennedy campaign, Moderna and BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF. Novavax declined to comment.

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