Health care stocks fell yesterday after President-elect Donald Trump said new bidding procedures are needed to stem rises in drug costs. Takeda Pharmaceutical fell 2.6 percent, Eisai Co. fell 3.3 percent and Chugai Pharmaceutical dropped 3.4 percent.

During his pre-inauguration press conference in New York, Trump briefly targeted moves by pharmaceutical companies to make their drugs overseas and their lobbying efforts.

“I think a lot of industries are going to be coming back,” Trump said. “We have to get our drug industry coming back. Our drug industry has been disastrous. They’re leaving left and right. They supply our drugs, but they don’t make them here, to a large extent. And the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry, because they’re getting away with murder.

“Pharma has a lot of lobbies and a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power, and there’s very little bidding on drugs,” the President-elect continued. “We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet, we don’t bid properly. And we’re going to start bidding and we’re going to save billions of dollars over a period of time, and we’re going to do that with a lot of other industries.

Following Trump’s remarks, drug and healthcare stocks slipped as investors looked for clues on where his priorities as the new president will lie after taking office on January 20.

(Sources: Associated Press, CNBC, FirstWord Pharma)