Big pharma jittery

Obama will try to sever ties to big lobbyists and reduce drug prices, or so he says. The Economist (as is so often the case) acts as the Cassandra:

FOR many years America has been the heart and soul of the pharmaceuticals business. The adoption of price controls and government-run health systems in Europe, where the industry began, led many drugs firms to pitch their tents in the land of the free market. Keen to encourage innovation and suspicious of big government (until recently, anyway), America has allowed drugs companies to price their wares more or less as they please. As a result, over half of the leading firms’ profits come from America alone.

So it might seem odd to suggest that the industry’s future now lies in the developing world... If growth is the carrot luring the drugs giants into emerging markets, the stick is the change in regulatory outlook in America from friendly to possibly frosty. The industry is concerned that Barack Obama, once in office, might allow cheap drugs to be imported from Canada or force Medicare, the government health-care system for the old and disabled, to negotiate big discounts with drugs firms. Peter Lawyer of Boston Consulting Group estimates that the latter reform alone could reduce the industry’s American revenues by 3-10%.

Last, but not least, the word is out that Obama is "gonna take 'em guns from us" and gun sales in the South are going through the roof.