Health Care Falls After Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan Initiative -- Health Care Roundup

Shares of health-care companies slid after a report that an consortium of U.S. employers would form a company focused on cutting health-care costs for employees.

Amazon.com, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, assigned senior executives to the health-care initiative.

"The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Mr. Buffett said.

Health-care investors took the venture seriously. Shares of drug-store chain CVS Health and its merger partner, health insurer Aetna, were among the big losers.

Pfizer reported for a fourth-quarter profit of $12.27 billion, or $2.02 a share, up from $775 million, or 13 cents a share, a year earlier, helped by a $10.7 billion gain on the revaluation of deferred tax assets following the recent tax overhaul legislation.

Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2018 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)