Pfizer freezes drug price increases after Trump warnings

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced today that it was freezing the price increase of some 40 drugs as a result of public warnings issued Monday by US President Donald Trump against l & # 39; company.

Pfizer said in a statement rising prices at least until early 2019.

"Pfizer revoked price increases, US patients will no longer pay." We congratulate Pfizer on this decision and we expect other companies to do the same. Trump, who is in Brussels to attend a NATO summit, also said he had spoken with Pfizer's CEO, Ian Read, and his Minister of Health. Alex Azar, on his drug price project announced in May.

Pfizer 's decision comes a day after Trump threatened the company with measures (which he did not specify) for the increase "Pfizer and". others should be ashamed of having raised the price of drugs for no reason, "writes Trump on Twitter

" They are simply taking advantage of the rising price of drugs – poor and others who are not able to to defend themselves, while at the same time offering reduced prices from time to time to other countries in Europe and elsewhere.We will respond! ", he added.

Among the drugs affected by the price increase, there is the treatment against erectile dysfunction Viagra, the drug against lung cancer Xalkori and the product against Lyrica nerve pain, according to several press articles.

This was the second time that the New York-based pharmaceutical company was increasing its prices this year, and other companies, such as the French group Sanofi, have also increased the cost of their products, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In May, Trump presented a plan to reduce drug costs, a strategy that aims to force other countries to raise drug prices in an effort to reduce drugs within US borders.

This plan did not impose concrete barriers to price increases from drug manufacturers who, in the country, can charge as much as market demands because the government does not do it. regulates its prices, as happens in many other places.

According to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2015 in the United States. Expenditures of $ 1,162 per person were spent on pharmaceuticals, compared to $ 756 in Canada and $ 497 in the United Kingdom, where there are government measures to control drug prices.