In an­oth­er win for Trump, Mer­ck takes the drug pric­ing pledge. Its cuts are a joke, but is this an in­dus­try tip­ping point?

You can add Mer­ck to the list of phar­ma gi­ants tak­ing the pledge to ei­ther hold off on any price hikes or mov­ing to cut them. And there are grow­ing signs that oth­er ma­jors may soon join the par­ty as at least one top ex­ec re­port­ed­ly met with Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump at the White House Thurs­day.

Fol­low­ing the lead of Pfiz­er and No­var­tis, Mer­ck put out a state­ment Thurs­day af­ter­noon that it has com­mit­ted to hold the line on any drug price hikes to the av­er­age in­fla­tion rate. In ad­di­tion, they have a spe­cial in mind. The com­pa­ny is slash­ing the price of their hep C com­bo Zepati­er by 60% while al­so promis­ing a 10% cut on oth­er ther­a­pies.

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