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 The rollback came a day after Trump took aim at Pfizer and other
U.S. drugmakers for raising prices on some of their medicines,
saying in a tweet that they "should be ashamed" and that his
administration would respond.
Pfizer on Tuesday said it would defer price increases that went into
effect on July 1 until the end of the year or until the president's
drug pricing blueprint goes into effect - whichever is sooner. The
company said it would return drug prices to their pre-July 1 levels
as soon as technically possible.
On Tuesday, Trump said in a tweet that Pfizer had agreed to roll
back drug price hikes after he and U.S. Health and Human Services
Secretary Alex Azar spoke with the company's CEO, Ian Read.
"We applaud Pfizer for this decision and hope other companies do the
same," Trump, who is traveling in Europe, said in a tweet.
Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies, now likely will
not raise drug prices until after the 2018 midterm elections in
November. That gives Trump, who made lowering prescription drug
prices a top 2016 presidential campaign issue, a short-term victory
he can point to in the run-up to the elections, which are being
closely watched to see if Trump's fellow Republicans will be able to
maintain control of both the Senate and the House of
Representatives.
Pfizer raised list prices on around 40 medicines earlier this month.
Those include Viagra, cholesterol drug Lipitor and arthritis
treatment Xeljanz, according to Wells Fargo. List prices do not
include rebates and discounts drugmakers may offer.
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The Trump administration has not yet taken significant action to
lower drug prices. Azar has said lowering prices long term will take
years because of the complexity of the healthcare system.
Trump rolled out a blueprint in May on how his administration
planned to lower drug prices. Trump said in May that some drug
companies would announce "voluntary, massive" price decreases in two
weeks, though none have materialized yet.
Pharmaceutical company shares rose after Trump unveiled his drug
pricing blueprint.
Azar praised Pfizer on Tuesday. "I commend Pfizer for its
constructive and professional approach, and its desire to work with
President Trump to be part of the solution and not part of the
problem," he said in a statement.
(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Michael Erman; Additional
reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Leslie Adler)
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