After its rival Pfizer was slammed on Twitter by President Donald Trump for raising the price of several drugs, Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis announced it will halt drug price increases in the U.S. for the remainder of the year, according to Bloomberg.
Novartis voluntarily pulled back its planned price increases, saying it wants the costs of its medications to be "reasonable."
"We thought the prudent thing to do was to pull back on any further price increases in 2018 and evaluate as the environment evolves," Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan told Bloomberg.
Novartis is the latest drugmaker to roll back planned price increases as pharmaceutical companies face increased pressure to lower drug prices.
Pfizer increased the prices of about 100 drugs and treatments July 1. However, it decided to delay some drug price increases after President Trump tweeted that the company should be "ashamed" of the move.