Pfizer Begins New Year By Hiking Prices Of 100 Products

Pfizer has started the year with raising prices by 20% of almost 105 of its manufactured drugs in the United States.

Pfizer has not hesitated to rapidly make changes right when the year began. On January 1, the pharmaceutical company raised prices in the United States for a hundred of its drugs with an increment of almost 20% according to data provided by global information business, Wolters Kluwer.

Pfizer has been hitting headlines for a very long time while planning a merger worth $160 billion with Allergan Plc in hopes to avoid huge US taxes. Its widely popular medicine for pain, Lyrica’s price has increased by 9.4%. This product made $2.3 billion in just US sale in 2014.

Similarly, the product for erectile dysfunction, Viagra’s pricing has increased by 12.9%, which made the business $1.1 billion in 2014. Ibrance, a drug used for breast cancer, has an increase of 5%, which was made available last year costing $9,850 each month for patients and annually $118,200.

The pharmaceutical company emailed statement that said, “Medicines are among the most effective and efficient use of private and public health care dollars, It is important to note that the list price does not reflect the considerable discounts offered to the government, managed care organizations, and commercial health plans and certain programs that restrict any increases above the inflation rate." A spokesman for the company, Steven Danehy, did not make any comments regarding the analysis immediately.

The raise in the prices for the drug and medications is getting significant attention, as many lawmakers and presidential candidates of the United States have criticized the high prices of these medications. The pharmaceutical manufacturer has raised prices for drugs, such as Nitrostat, Tykosyn, Tygacil and many others by 20%. A report by an analyst indicates that the organization has raised prices for 105 of its products and has not reduced prices for any of its medicines.

Pfizer is not the only business in the industry that has made the decision of raising the prices, as other companies have taken the same measure too. A research by Truveris states that US prescribed medications prices rose to 10.9% in 2014. If the merger, which the business has been planning, takes place, it will make Pfizer the world’s biggest drug maker, and it plans to shift its main headquarters to Ireland after the merge is complete, enabling it to avoid taxes.

Democrats are not very happy about the merger, and Hillary Clinton said that new rules and laws would be made so that companies do not take such advantages again in future.