Trump Trade: U.S. President signs new pharma order

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

PHARMA ORDER: U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum mandating that pharmaceutical advertisements increase the amount of information regarding risks of the drug in question. “My Administration will ensure that the current regulatory framework for drug advertising results in fair, balanced, and complete information for American consumers,” the memorandum reads. “The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall therefore take appropriate action to ensure transparency and accuracy in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, including by increasing the amount of information regarding any risks associated with the use of any such prescription drug required to be provided in prescription drug advertisements, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

The Commissioner of Food and Drugs shall take appropriate action to enforce the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act’s prescription drug advertising provisions, and otherwise ensure truthful and non-misleading information in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements. This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.” Publicly traded companies in the space include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY).

MOST EXPOSED: Wells Fargo sees relatively limited exposure to digital advertising companies outside of DoubleVerify (DV) and Reddit (RDDT) from President Trump’s executive order increasing disclosure requirements for pharma advertising. The order will likely impact ad spend negatively, with DoubleVerify and Reddit having high-single-digit exposure, the firm tells investors in a research note. Wells says both companies have over 5% exposure to the pharmaceutical category. The firm’s industry checks suggest Meta Platforms (META) enforced new rules on its health and wellness category advertisers in early 2025, which will likely limiting any impact to the company from Trump’s order.

TARIFFS ON CHINA, INDIA: U.S. President Donald Trump has asked the European Union to levy tariffs of up to 100% on imports from China and India as part of an attempt to raise pressure on Russia to terminate its war in Ukraine, the Financial Times’ James Politi, Amy Mackinnon, and Henry Foy report, citing three officials familiar with the matter. Trump made the demand after calling into a meeting between senior U.S. and EU officials in Washington to discuss ways to increase the economic cost of the war for Putin, the authors note. “We’re ready to go, ready to go right now, but we’re only going to do this if our European partners step up with us,” one U.S. official told FT. Another U.S. official told FT that the White House was prepared to “mirror” any tariffs on China and India imposed by the bloc.