Barron's: Pharma's better than Wall Street thinks

Are investors too gloomy about Big Pharma? A new article in Barron's suggests that's the case. Despite worries about the coming patent cliff--which will claim some of the industry's biggest drugs, such as Lipitor and Singulair--as well as what new drugs might fill the gaps, the pharma business doesn't necessarily deserve one of the lowest P/E ratios in the market, the publication argues.

In fact, some drug stocks could leap by 30 percent, Barron's posits. Among the best bets, according to the weekly pub, are Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and Roche.

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca aren't as attractive, investment-wise, as their Big Pharma colleagues, the article says. We're not stock-pickers, so we hesitate to comment. What do you think?

- see the Barron's piece
- get the news from Reuters