President Trump once convinced drug manufacturer Pfizer to curb its price hikes. This time, he may not be so lucky.
America's biggest drug manufacturer announced Friday it would increase prices on 10 percent of its prescriptions in January, Bloomberg reports. The move comes after Republicans lost the House in last week's midterms — something experts suggest isn't a coincidence.
The price hike affects 41 prescription drugs in Pfizer's portfolio, The Wall Street Journal has learned. Most of the drugs will see a 5 percent price increase, but some could be up to 9 percent. "Newly approved medicines and sterile injectables" aren't included in the hike, the Journal writes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Pfizer announced a similar increase on more than 40 drugs back in July, with many slated for price hikes of 9.4 percent and even higher. Trump quickly criticized the move on Twitter, and after a conversation between the president and Pfizer CEO Ian Read, Pfizer said it would delay the increases "to give the president an opportunity to work on his blueprint to strengthen the health-care system."
After Friday's revelation, Andy Slavitt, the former head of Medicare and Medicaid, suggested in a tweet that Pfizer was "back to business" now that the midterms are over. After all, Democrats will soon take over the House, limiting Trump's ability to revamp the health-care system. Trump also still hasn't enacted his plan to lower drug costs, Bloomberg notes. And Read, who the Journal says "supports the Trump administration," is stepping down as Pfizer's CEO in January.
A spokeswoman for Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar criticized the move, telling Bloomberg it shows the "perverse incentives of America's drug pricing system."
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
