Pharma drops as Trump unveils healthcare bill, drug pricing initiative

The US president took to his Twitter account on Tuesday to promote his proposed new healthcare bill, announcing that his cabinet was also working on a new system to increase competition in drug pricing.

In his tweet, Trump said ObamaCare, the previous US president's landmark policy to extend medical benefits to all Americans was a "complete and total disaster and was imploding fast".

As for his proposals on drug pricing, he said: "don't worry, getting rid of state lines, which will promote competition, will be in phase 2 & 3 of healthcare roll-out".

Investors in the pharma space did not heed his reassuring words, and as of 1406 GMT had sent shares of AstraZeneca down by 0.74%, alongside falls of 1.44% for Shire and of 0.56% in GlaxoSmithKline.