On Friday evening the US government announced an agreement with nine pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis and Roche subsidiary Genentech. In return for lower drug prices and investments, they are to be exempt from customs duties for three years. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The two Swiss pharmaceutical giants reaffirmed their earlier intentions to invest billions in the production of medicines in the US. Roche, or rather its subsidiary Genentech, intends to invest $50 billion (CHF40 billion). Novartis has reaffirmed its previously announced investment of $23 billion. Novartis said it had "voluntarily committed" to implement several measures as part of the agreement to support the US government's drug pricing priorities. These include bringing future medicines to market in high-income countries at comparable prices. In addition, the company wants to establish direct-to-patient platforms for individual drugs, which will be accessible via a ...
