Pfizer delays drug price hikes after pressure from Trump

A Pfizer sign in Massachusetts — (Image credit: DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump tweeted on Tuesday that drugmaker Pfizer is "rolling back price hikes, so American patients don't pay more," saying he and Health Secretary Alex Azar just discussed costs with Pfizer CEO Ian Read.

Pfizer confirmed that it had agreed to delay price increases that took effect July 1 "to give the president an opportunity to work on his blueprint to strengthen the health-care system," the Financial Times reports. On Monday, Trump tweeted that "Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason. They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.