President Trump slammed pharmaceutical giant Pfizer after reports that the drug maker had raised prices for more than 40 products.
“Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason,” Trump tweeted on Monday. “They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere. We will respond!”
Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason. They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere. We will respond!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018
Trump’s tweet came after Pfizer decided last week to raise prices for more than 40 products, including price hikes of nearly 10 percent for drugs like Viagra and antidepressant Zoloft.
The price hikes come a few months after Trump outlined a blue print on how to tackle high drug prices. But critics and Democrats have charged that the blue print doesn’t do enough to prevent drug makers from raising list prices to whatever they want.
The blue print mainly focuses on a series of reforms to Medicare in an effort to control drug costs and includes several measures from the president’s proposed budget.
Pfizer responded that the list price remains unchanged for a majority of its more than 400 medicines and vaccines. “We are modifying prices for approximately 10% of these, including some instances where we’re decreasing the price,” the company said.
