Photo:
Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA/Associated Press
Shares of medical distributors and other health-care companies took a hit on Wednesday, and their pain may not be short-lived.
AmerisourceBergen
Corp.
fell 4%, while Cardinal Health, Inc. shed 3.8%.
McKesson
Corp.
lost about 2.7% in recent trading. All three performed worse than the broader U.S. stock market on Wednesday, which recorded small declines.
Their declines come after news reports revealed new government data on information about opioid sales and distribution before 2013.
Wednesday’s drop puts a pause on solid performance for the medical distributors so far this year.
AmerisourceBergen has gained 14.8% in 2019, while McKesson is up 26%. Cardinal has edged higher about 1% this year.
Other pharmaceutical companies have also had a rough week.
CVS Health
Corp.
and
Walgreens Boots Alliance
Inc.
simultaneously fell on Wednesday.
Morgan Stanley
downgraded pharmaceutical companies
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Ltd.
and
Endo International
PLC to “underweight” earlier this week, saying that they are exposed to opioid litigation. Teva lost 6.3% on Wednesday while Endo fell about 3.1%. Shares of both have lost more than 50% this year.
“Opioid litigation is just getting started. There are thousands of lawsuits, and we see the potential for negative litigation developments over the next few years,” wrote Morgan Stanley analysts in a note on Monday.
Write to Gunjan Banerji at Gunjan.Banerji@wsj.com
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