Barclays cautious on European pharma in H1, sees re-rating chance in H2

Ipsen SA

17/01/2025 11:17

** Barclays is cautious on European
pharmaceuticals and life sciences, predicting a
challenging H1 while major clinical catalysts in H2
could offer a chance for a re-rating
    ** The U.S. policy and obesity uncertainty
overhangs are "setting a cloud over" the whole
sector, the broker says
    ** But it says that in H2 "we'll have a better
idea off the policy goals of the incoming Trump
administration and we'll be closer to major,
narrative-defining catalysts"
    ** It expects pivotal readouts for potential
blockbusters towards H2, with more than $1 billion in
peak sales, for AstraZeneca  AZN.L , GSK  GSK.L ,
Novartis  NOVN.S , Novo Nordisk  NOVOb.CO , Roche
 ROG.S  and Sanofi  SASY.PA 
    ** Barclays says it better not be distracted by
cheap valuations and stick to stocks with
high-quality stories
    ** H1 is a "stock picker's market", it says,
preferring argenx  ARGX.BR , AstraZeneca, Lonza
 LONN.S , Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and UCB  NOVOb.CO 
    ** Other companies it sees faring well in H1
include Sandoz  SDZ.S  and Hikma Pharmaceuticals
 HIK.L 

 COMPANY                               RATING
 argenx                                overweight
 AstraZeneca                           overweight
 Bachem  BANB.S                        underweight
 Bayer  BAYGn.DE                       equal-weight
 GSK                                   equal-weight
 Galapagos  GLPG.AS                    equal-weight
 Genmab  GMAB.CO                       overweight
 Grifols  GRLS.MC                      overweight
 H Lundbeck  HLUNa.CO                  equal-weight
 Hikma Pharmaceuticals                 equal-weight
 Ipsen  IPN.PA                         equal-weight
 Lonza                                 overweight
 Merck  MRCG.DE                        overweight
 Novartis                              underweight
 Novo Nordisk                          overweight
 Recordati  RECI.MI                    underweight
 Roche                                 equal-weight
 Sandoz                                overweight
 Sanofi                                overweight
 Sartorius  SATG.DE                    equal-weight
 Swedish Orphan Biovitrum  SOBIV.ST    overweight
 UCB                                   overweight
 
 (Reporting by Marta Frackowiak)
 ((marta.frackowiak@thomsonreuters.com))