*By Bridgette Webb* Drugmaker Merck announced earlier this month it will slash prices on several drugs by 10 percent or more. But there is a catch: the price rollback will only affect some of the smaller products in its portfolioーlike Hepatitis C drug, Zepatier, which accounts for about 4 percent of the company's salesーand not top sellers like cancer treatment Keytruda. "Their scope is relatively limited," said Peter Loftus, a Reporter for the Wall Street Journal, during an interview on Cheddar Monday. "If you think about the total sales that Merck generatesーit's a relatively small percentage." Merck's announcement was met with praise from the Trump administration. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar claimed the drop in prices was spurred by Trump's latest crackdown on pharmaceutical companies. Other big pharma names are following suit: Pfizer and Novartis announced they will freeze price increases for the rest of the year, earning them congratulatory tweets from the president. Despite all of the price freezes and drops, Loftus says that patients may not actually see any real savings. "I don't think you can say on a widespread basis, and really for the average drug or patient, that prices are coming down, there are still price increases." For the full segment, [click here.] (https://cheddar.com/videos/drugmakers-tout-lower-prices)
