, Columnist
Roche Takes Drug-Price Posturing to New Heights
The drugmaker won't raise drug prices until … the next time it usually increases them. Truly heroic.
Profiles in cynicism.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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Drug companies are falling over themselves with plans to halt or defer price increases to get on Donald Trump’s good side. They seem to believe his approval comes cheap.
Pfizer Inc. started things off earlier this month by agreeing to roll back mid-year price hikes and delay them — for a few months. Similar efforts announced this week by Novartis AG and Merck & Co. arguably won’t be any more consequential. But Roche Holding AG takes the cake by promising to not raise prices for the rest of 2018, shortly after it hiked prices for the second time this year on its biggest drugs.