Among the clearest beneficiaries of the victory of Donald Trump in the US election are the big American pharmaceuticals companies. There was an assumption that a Hillary Clinton presidency would involve a sharp crackdown on the amount they could charge for their products after she accused the industry of “outrageous price-gouging”. Mr Trump made noises about some limitations on pricing, but this is not seen as a high priority.
So drugs company shares have rallied sharply, among them Shire, which is based in Dublin and is one of the core holdings of the Biotech Growth Trust. The whole sector got a further fillip at the end of last week when the news broke that Johnson & Johnson, of the United States, had approached the