Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker, said Wednesday 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. “We thought that was prudent, given the dynamic environment we’re currently in,” he said.
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.
