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Episode details

World Service,12 Jan 2017,26 mins

Drugs Shares Down After Donald Trump Attacks Prices

World Business Report

Available for over a year

Donald Trump has put the pharmaceutical industry on notice that he is concerned they are charging too much for drugs. The criticism from the next US President, who takes office in a few days, caused shares in drugs makers to fall, as investors assume putting big pharmaceutical companies under the spotlight may have a similiar effect to his recent criticism of the world's big car manufacturers. Donald Trump has also criticised the media over a leaked unsubstantiated report alleging he was involved in salacious behaviour in Russia. We hear analysis from Professor Thomas E. Patterson, from the John F Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University. Investors are under pressure to measure how Donald Trump's economic strategy will affect the financial markets. Some experts have drawn comparisons with the administration of former US President Ronald Reagan. Our regular commentator, Irwin Stelzer at the Hudson Institute in Washington, notes there is a major difference in the fact that Donald Trump will take office with a growing American economy. The UK has given a green light to a plan to build the first ever tidal power lagoon, off the coast of south Wales. It could provide the blueprint for a new source of renewable energy for the world, with wave power used to generate elecricity. If it is successful the company behind the project intends to expand the idea globally. Ioan Jenkins, from Tidal Lagoon Power, describes the project at the proposed site in Swansea Bay and Professor Jim Watson, director of the UK Energy Research Centre, tells us more about tidal lagoon hydro-power. Thousands of buyers are flocking to the Hong Kong Toy Fair, the biggest of its kind in Asia. Despite an uncertain economic environment, the global toy industry is expected to expand by seven percent this year, that is according to the research group Euromonitor. But there is one category that is growing much faster, high-tech smart toys. The BBC's Juliana Liu went to take a look. (Picture: Various drugs pills. Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty Images.)

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