The head of the world’s largest pharmaceuticals company expressed confidence that US healthcare reform would be approved by the end of this year, and praised the Senate finance committee’s latest draft in spite of the extra costs it would impose on his business.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jeffrey Kindler, chief executive of Pfizer, said that an $80bn cost-cutting deal over the coming decade proposed by the pharmaceuticals trade body to the White House would “certainly cost the industry” money, but he called the latest draft “balanced and thoughtful”.