Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the U.S., increased the price of 100 drugs and treatments July 1, according to a CBS News report.
While the drugmaker upped the price of some of its drugs by 20 percent, the average price hike for the 100 drugs and treatments is about 9 percent. The increases are well above the rate of inflation, which is 2 percent.
Pfizer has increased the price of some of its well-known drugs, including its erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra. The cost of a 100 mg pill early this year was $73.85; it now costs consumers $88.45, a price hike of nearly 20 percent.
Pfizer's Xalatan eyedrops that treat glaucoma now has a price tag of $107.05, compared to $89.38 at the beginning of 2018.
The pharmaceutical giant generated $52.8 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2018. The Financial Times reported that the drugmaker cut the cost of five products 16 percent to 44 percent on July 1.
Pfizer told the Financial Times that the list price of a majority of its drugs remained unchanged and that the list price does not reflect what most patients or insurance companies end up paying for the drugs.
The price hikes come despite President Donald Trump's promise May 31 that drug companies soon would be cutting prices.