US-LISTED healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to disclose average price increases of prescription drugs as the industry tries to calm the storm over perceived soaring prices, according to a report by the Associated Press.
While experts argue the move will help the company's image more than the patients it says it wants to support, they say it could force other drug manufacturers to moderate future price hikes and be more transparent.
The company said it would divulge average list price increases and what middlemen distributors paid for medicines.
Annual price tags over $100,000 for many new drugs for cancer and rare diseases, plus huge price hikes on old generic products with little competition, have left some patients unable to afford their medicines.
The threat of US government price controls may be averted by the Johnson & Johnson initiative, some strategists have suggested, with seemingly unjustifiable price gouging infuriating doctors and politicians, triggering multiple government probes.
Yesterday US President Elect Donald Trump weighed in on the issue in anticipation of his planned "new bidding procedures for the drug industry" which would apply downward pressure on drug pricing.
Still pushing his price-cutting barrow, Trump's comments finished with reference to drug companies "getting away with murder", causing health care and some biotech stocks to fall sharply on the announcements.
The Nasdaq composite erased gains to trade slightly lower while health care dropped more than 1.5% as the worst performer in the S&P 500, with the pharmaceuticals sub-sector down more than 1.5% and the biotech sub-sector off nearly 3%, CNBC reports.
This was not the first time Trump has had this effect, causing a similar fall in share prices fo pharma and biotech stocks in Dec 2016 when he said in an interview "I'm going to bring down drug prices".
He also told Time magazine which named him Person of the Year, "I don't like what has happened with drug prices."
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