What happens when the Trump train hits the health care establishment?
There’s no doubt that President-elect Trump’s decision to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and vaccine critic, as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has thrown the health care sector into disarray.
This analysis is an attempt to imagine a future where Kennedy is running HHS, informed by interviews with current and former government officials, industry consultants, and executives, all of whom spoke on the condition that their identifying details remain anonymous in order to give candid views at a sensitive time. It will address the risks and potential benefits for drug and biotech companies, which I frequently write about, but also for the health care sector writ large and also, for that matter, for the health of the public. Speculation ahead.
This is really happening
When Trump and his transition team first started to talk up RFK Jr. as someone who was smart on health, there was a tendency for investors in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to downplay Kennedy’s role. He’d be a White House czar, working behind the scenes, but not with actual power; anyway, there was no way he and Trump could remain in the same White House for long.
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