After raising the price of its marquee cancer drug, Celgene said Thursday it doesn’t plan further increases this year as the White House presses pharmaceutical companies to lower treatment costs.
The Summit, N.J.-based drugmaker said it increased the price of cancer drug Revlimid by 5 percent in 2018. Sales of the treatment grew 21 percent to $2.45 billion in the three months through June, making up 64 percent of Celgene’s total revenue.
The company joined several other pharmaceutical manufacturers in pledging to refrain from further price increases for six months as the administration enacts its drug pricing blueprint. President Trump previously slammed Pfizer for raising prices, and the company reversed course after discussions with the White House.
Companywide, Celgene’s revenue grew 17 percent to $3.8 billion in the quarter, while net income dipped to $1 billion.
“We continued to deliver strong operating performance,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Alles said in a statement. “Our next innovation cycle is under way. We are meaningfully advancing our pipeline, while strengthening the organization to maximize future growth opportunities.”
Alles said the company is preparing for all possible outcomes of Trump’s drug pricing plan, which critics charged was vague and contained some contradictory proposals. The administration has since put out requests for proposals on how to advance some initiatives.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure that the different scenarios in a conservative way would be built into our shorter and longer term financial profile,” Alles said on the company’s earnings call. “We’re preparing for a lot of these things that if they would happen we would know what our position would be.”
Celgene is one of several companies that the Food and Drug Administration previously identified as using a safety program that some pharmaceutical firms have leveraged to prevent generic competition.
