Medicare Part D and big pharma

Despite the fact that many analysts see Medicare Part D as the biggest thing to happen to the pharmaceutical industry in years, pharma companies have been reluctant to talk about how much they stand to gain. Some even argue that in the end the benefit will end up hurting manufacturers more than it helps as customers move over to low-cost generics. Not many people buy that argument. Some analysts think the winners are likely to be companies like Sanofi-Aventis, Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories, all of which have limited exposure in their portfolios to generic competition. The losers, he argues, will be companies which specialize in classes "built more with marketing muscle than on product differences."

- see this article in The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)