Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on Monday called on pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to “permanently roll back prices,” days after the company said it would temporarily postpone a planned price hike.
In a letter to Pfizer’s CEO Ian Read, Baldwin said the company needs to stop “playing games” with the costs of prescription drugs. Pfizer instead needs to “make a firm and clear commitment” to permanent price reductions, Baldwin wrote.
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The letter comes six days after Pfizer announced it was postponing its price hikes on certain drugs, after President Trump blasted the company on Twitter for raising costs.
Baldwin said the company’s statement was “puzzling,” since the company only delayed its price increases until 2019, and didn’t make any changes to how it prices its drugs.
The announcement “calls into question your actions to raise prices in the first place and provides no answers to consumers about whether this will help them better afford their medications now and in the long run,” Baldwin wrote.
Pfizer, one of the world’s largest drugmakers, raised the list prices for more than 100 of its prescription drugs on July 1.
Trump tweeted that Pfizer “should be ashamed” for raising drugs prices “for no reason” and “taking advantage of the poor.”
Once Pfizer made the announcement, Trump praised it as “Great news for the American people!”