European pharma stocks fall ahead of Trump's 'Liberation Day'

Bavarian Nordic A/S

02/04/2025 09:22

** Shares in healthcare companies drop on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump is set to unveil his reciprocal tariff plans, which he deemed "Liberation Day"

** STOXX 600 Healthcare index .SXDP falls 2.5% to its lowest since December at 0819 GMT, leading sectoral losses on wider STOXX 600 .STOXX index, which is down 0.9%

** "This might be a reaction to the tariff announcements expected today from the U.S. administration, which this time could focus on the pharmaceutical sector," an analyst says

** "(...) it's not surprising that pharma stocks have been caught up in this wave of nervousness," Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says

** Among single stocks, Bayer BAYGn.DE and Sanofi SASY.PA fall 4.7% and 3.3%, respectively, while Lonza LONN.S and Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO are down around 2.7%

** Novartis NOVN.S, Roche ROG.S and Merck MRCG.DE fall between 1.6% and 2.7%

** AstraZeneca AZN.L, Bavarian Nordic BAVA.CO, GSK GSK.L and UCB UCB.BR drop 2.5%-3.7%

 (Reporting by Ozan Ergenay, Isabel Demetz, Sukriti Gupta)

 ((ozan.ergenay@thomsonreuters.com))