Prices will be going up on 41 Pfizer drugs in January.
Pfizer has announced again this year that it will be raising prices on some of its drugs. The company had announced prices hikes in July but did not implement them after President Trump tweeted that “Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason.”
The current price hikes will affect 41 drugs, approximately 10% of Pfizer’s product portfolio, and will go into effect on January 15, 2019. A few products will see a price increase of 3%, one will rise 9% and the majority will be hiked 5%. The company expects the higher list prices to be offset by higher rebates and discounts paid to insurance companies and pharmacy benefits managers, with the no net effect on revenue growth.
According to Pfizer Chairman and CEO Ian Read, the company believes that “the best means to address affordability of medicines is to reduce the growing out-of-pocket costs that consumers are facing due to high deductibles and co-insurance, and ensure that patients receive the benefit of rebates at the pharmacy counter.”
Caitlin Oakley, a department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman, commented that “...Drug companies raising their prices and offsetting them with higher rebates benefits everyone but the consumer, who routinely pays out of pocket based on list price. President Trump and Secretary Azar remain committed to lowering drug prices and reducing out of pocket costs, and will continue to take bold action to restructure this broken market."
