Vaccine, packaged food stocks fall as Kennedy moves closer to health secretary job

(Reuters) – Shares of vaccine makers and packaged food companies fell on Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., moved closer to the job after a favorable vote by a Senate panel.

The vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee paves the way for the full Senate to vote to confirm him as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as soon as this week.

Kennedy, who has faced opposition from health groups and Democrats, has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades. He disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.

Kennedy said during his run for U.S. president as an independent that he wanted to “Make America Healthy Again,” calling out additives, chemicals and sugar used in packaged foods and sodas as culprits for causing chronic illness in the United States.

Pfizer was down 1.8%, along with U.S. shares of its COVID-19 vaccine partner, BioNTech, which fell 2%. Moderna dropped 1.8% and Novavax slipped 2.3%.

Shares of packaged food companies including Hershey, Mondelez, Kraft Heinz, General Mills were all down 2%.

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)