DRUGS/PHARMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker, said Wednesday [7-18-18] that it would not raise prices on its products in the United States for the rest of 2018, joining Pfizer, which delayed its increases last week after President Trump singled out the company for criticism. Novartis’s chief executive, Vas Narasimhan, said during an earnings call with investors that the company had made the decision in June, amid escalating outrage over high drug prices… A spokesman for Novartis said the company notified the state of California, which has a new drug-price transparency law, of its decision in June but the news was not widely known. Novartis’s stock was trading at about $80 at midday on Wednesday, up 2.35 percent. Pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to stem the groundswell of criticism over steep drug pricing, as elected officials and the Trump administration have taken up the issue. Earlier this year, the Trump administration released a detailed plan, and the proposal has generated more than 2,000 comments from a range of interest groups that submitted their opinions before a federal deadline on Monday [7-16-18].”
–Katie Thomas, “Bowing to Trump, Novartis Joins Pfizer in Freezing Drug Prices,” The New York Times online, July 18, 2018