Pfizer raises drug prices again, rebuking Trump

Drug giant Pfizer announced on Friday it will increase the list prices of 41 medicines in January, just months after it agreed to temporarily roll back price hikes under pressure from President Donald Trump.

Pfizer’s new price increases, which take effect Jan. 15, will apply to 10 percent of its portfolio, the company said. Most of those drugs will see 5 percent increases.

Trump attacked Pfizer in July after the company raised prices, just weeks after he announced a drug pricing plan he claimed would result in “historic” price cuts. Trump accused the company of “taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves,” and Pfizer a day later agreed to cancel the price increases.

Pfizer at the time said the rollback would give Trump an opportunity to work on his administration’s drug price plan. The company said it would reinstate price increases at the end of the year if the administration’s drug pricing plan didn’t take effect.

A spokesperson for HHS Secretary Alex Azar criticized Pfizer’s latest price hikes, saying they “further illustrate the perverse incentives of America’s drug pricing system.”

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