Moderna, Lily, Novavax, and Pfizer stocks fall after Trump nominates RFK Jr. as health secretary

Shares in some of America’s largest drug manufacturers tumbled yesterday after President-elect Donald Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Kennedy Jr. is just the latest controversial cabinet nomination by Trump, but there’s a specific reason his appointment seems to be worrying some Big Pharma and biotech investors. Here’s what you need to know.

Make America Healthy Again?

Yesterday, Trump announced Kennedy Jr. was his selection as the country’s new health secretary. In a post on X, Trump lamented that “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”

The president-elect went on to say that Kennedy Jr. would “restore” the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies “to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency” as well as ending the chronic disease epidemic in America.

But while ending the chronic disease epidemic in America sounds like a good thing, few health professionals think Kennedy Jr. is the man to lead such a crusade. That’s because Kennedy Jr. is an outspoken vaccine skeptic—and vaccines are, you know, pretty beneficial for public health.

As noted by the Guardian, Apu Akkad, an infectious disease physician with the University of Southern California, said Kennedy Jr.’s nomination was a “scary day for public health.”

Politicians have also not held back, with the Democratic Congressman of California’s 42nd district, Robert Julio Garcia, writing on X, “The RFK as Health Secretary appointment is fucking insane. He’s a vaccine denier and a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist. He will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems. This is going to cost lives.”

Still, Kennedy Jr. has a staunch ally in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) PAC, which says its “mission is to dismantle the corporate influence over our government agencies that has contributed to widespread chronic illness, environmental degradation, and declining public trust.”

The PAC now says it’s pleased with Trump’s HHS nomination and has set up a page dedicated to organizing the public to help ensure Kennedy Jr. is confirmed. But if he is, investors fear that could spell bad news for major pharmaceutical companies.

Pfizer, Moderna, Eli Lily shares fall

If Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as the new head of the HHS, he could have significant sway over the agency’s stance on vaccines, including the narrative around them.

As CNN notes, Kennedy Jr. has stated that he would “immediately” begin studying the safety of vaccines. However, experts fear whether these studies would be scientifically rigorous. If they are not, and if such “studies” show vaccines in a negative light, it could fuel vaccine skepticism.

Not only would increasing vaccine skepticism be bad for public health, but it would also be bad for some of the world’s largest pharmacy and biotech companies, which is likely why so many of their share prices have declined since news of Kennedy Jr.’s nomination.

Major vaccine makers like Moderna, Inc. and Pfizer Inc. have seen declines in the period after Kennedy Jr.’s nomination.

• Moderna stock (Nasdaq: MRNA) fell over 5% yesterday and is down another 1.4% today. As of the time of this writing, in premarket trading, MRNA shares are sitting around $39.18.
• Pfizer stock (NYSE: PFE) is also down in the same period. Yesterday, PFE shares fell 2.6%, and in premarket trading today, they are down another 0.46% to $25.90. 

Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines helped turn the tide of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Other pharma and biotech companies that make vaccines have also seen their shares fall as well:

• Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) shares fell 3.15% yesterday.
• BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) shares fell over 7%.
• Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX), another vaccine maker, saw its stock drop 7%.

German biotech company BioNTech helped bring an RNA vaccine to market with Pfizer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

CDC warns measles cases are surging

In an ironic twist, on the same day that Trump announced vaccine skeptic Kennedy Jr. as his nominee for health secretary, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that measles cases surged across the globe in 2023. During the year, they rose 20% to 10.3 million cases.

This is alarming because vaccines that are highly effective against measles have been around for half a century now. The immunization needs two doses to be most effective, yet the CDC says in 2023, 83% of children received the first dose, yet only 74% received the second.

While the CDC did not say that rising vaccine skepticism was behind the increase, any further distrust of vaccines may affect the public’s willingness to get the lifesaving shots.

Whether or not Kennedy Jr. will use his HHS position, if confirmed, to launch initiatives that seed further distrust in vaccines remains to be seen.