Drugs firms wait on recovery news

By Antony Milford, head of healthcare investment at Framlington Fundamentally, the events of 11 September and subsequent hostilities in Afghanistan had little direct impact on the healthcare industry. There was some minor disruption in business from the cessation of airfreight and some unwillingness on the part of patients to travel to receive treatment but these were very much short-lived effects. There was a brief speculative flurry in a number of stocks that were seen as beneficiaries of measures to combat bioterrorism. More importantly, the impact on consumer and business confid...