Donald Trump thanks Novartis for halting price hikes

Donald Trump has thanked Swiss multinational Novartis for halting price hikes on prescription drugs in the United States.

The US President’s gratitude comes as Novartis pledged to freeze price increases on its own products until the end of 2018.

Trump thanked both Novartis and Pfizer via twitter, writing: “Thank you to Novartis for not increasing your prices on prescription drugs. Likewise to Pfizer. We are making a big push to actually reduce the prices, maybe substantially, on prescription drugs.”

The drug maker’s decision has come as Pfizer announced similar measures at the start of this month, following a clash with the President who tweeted that: “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!”  

However Novartis have said that they had made their decision in June on a voluntary basis, before Pfizer announced the reversal of its price increases.

Novartis’ CEO Vasant Narasimhan said in a comment to Reuters that: “Right now, in a very dynamic environment in the United States ... we view it as the prudent course.”

Louis Goss