CSL leads healthcare selloff as RFK Jr survives Senate vote
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The news: Healthcare was the only sector in the red by afternoon trading on the ASX, following a similar retreat on Wall Street overnight, as Robert F Kennedy Jr passed a critical Senate vote and paved the way to becoming the next US health secretary.
The numbers: Healthcare was down 0.9% by 2:30pm AEDT as the ASX 200 index rose 0.6%.
The market's largest healthcare stock CSL (-1.7%) was one of the worst hit. The vaccine manufacturer slumped after Kennedy, a vocal vaccine sceptic, secured a favourable vote by the US Senate Finance Committee, before a full Senate vote to confirm him as health secretary as early as this week.
CSL's influenza vaccine business makes up roughly 15% of its group earnings.
The fall follows declines by fellow major vaccine companies Novavax (-2.3%), BioNTech (-2%), Pfizer (-1.8%) and Moderna (-1.8%) overnight.
Elsewhere, Mesoblast (-4.4%), Sigma Healthcare (-2.7%), Fisher & Paykel (-1.7%) and Telix Pharmaceuticals (-1.6%) were among the Australian healthcare stocks hardest hit by the selloff. However, Clarity Pharmaceuticals (7.02%) bucked the trend.
The context: Kennedy became a prominent anti-vaccine voice during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also promised that the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water, claiming that fluoride is "an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease".
Healthcare stocks also lowered in November when Trump initially nominated Kennedy to run the US Department of Health and Humans Services.
The source: Reuters
