The US Senate has decided to scrap Obamacare health insurance programme with a vote of 51-48. Voting in Senate is to instruct key committees to draft legislation repealing President Barack Obama's signature health insurance programme. The resolution now goes to the House of Representatives, which is expected to vote on it this week. Scrapping Obamacare is a top priority for the Republican majorities in both chambers and Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

Republicans have said that the process of repealing Obamacare could take months, and developing a replacement plan could take longer. But they are under pressure from Trump to act fast; he said on Wednesday that the repeal and replacement should happen "essentially simultaneously."

Some 20 million previously uninsured Americans gained health coverage through the Affordable Care Act, as Obamacare is officially called. Coverage was extended by expanding Medicaid and through online exchanges where consumers can receive income-based subsidies.

The US president Donald Trump recently attacked the US pharmaceutical industry for high drug prices and for manufacturing overseas. To overcome problems he will create new procedures for bidding on drugs. The industry is “getting away with murder”, Trump said in his first press conference since he was elected, sending pharma stocks plunging.

Trump said “Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists, a lot of power. Our drug industry has been disastrous. They’re leaving left and right. They supply our drugs but they don’t make them here, to a large extent. The pharmaceutical companies will be coming back to the US from overseas.”

He said “the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry to cut high prices. The US is “the largest buyer of drugs in the world” but does not bid properly, he said. With the changes to bidding procedures, which he did not specify, “We’re going to save billions of dollars.”

Commenting on Donald Trump's comment, Hemant Deshpande, managing partner of Mumbai-based Pollux, mandated by Ministry of Skill Development led Life Sciences Sector Skill Development Council, said,  “India accounts for the maximum number of US FDA approved plants outside US and manufacturing cost in India is approximately 35-40 per cent of that in US as installation and labour costs are low. However, to remain competitive and allow the market forces to overcome President Trump’s initiative, Indian pharmaceutical industry will have to ensure that the labour cost remains not only low but also is skilled enough to maintain the rigorous regulatory and compliance norms as also maintain the sales realization economically viable.”

"Trump's statement is not new to the pharmaceutical industry. It has been there for quite sometime that there will be an embargo on pharma. Hence, stock market has discounted pharma stocks already," said Sundar Sanmukhani, head of fundamental research, at Choice Broking.