GENEVA (Reuters) -Swiss pharma companies are likely to follow Pfizer’s price deal with the U.S. following a demand from President Donald Trump’s administration for lower drug prices, the head of a major Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical industry association said on Wednesday. Pfizer and Trump said on Tuesday they had agreed a deal in which the U.S. firm would lower prescription drug prices in the Medicaid program to match those it charges in other developed countries in exchange for tariff relief. Stephan Mumenthaler, director general of Scienceindustries – which represents around 250 Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical companies – told Reuters he expected announcements of “mini-deals” to come one by one in the coming days and weeks from Swiss and global pharmaceutical companies. “They are thinking in similar schemes…How can you omit the margins that middlemen are taking away so that you basically have a similar price than before, but the end consumer still gets a lower price,” he said in a video call from Basel.
(Reporting by Olivia Le PoidevinEditing by Madeline Chambers)