How a drug company fighting depression avoids ‘ripoff’ drug prices

Mike Mergen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A pharmacy technician fills a prescription inside a Wal-Mart store in Trevose, Pa.

Lundbeck stock fell 1.05 percent on Monday. Sixty-one percent of Lundbeck’s sales came from North America in the first half of 2017.

Earlier Monday, Trump lashed out at Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier for stepping down from the American Manufacturing Council over the president’s equivocal response to a white nationalist protest that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

“Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council,” the president tweeted, “he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

Trump Tweet

“As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,” Frazier, who is African-American, said in a statement tweeted Monday morning.

Merck CEO Tweet

Asked if he was concerned about the president’s willingness to take aim at pharmaceutical companies, Schultz said Lundbeck has nothing to worry about.

“We always feel we provide value in all the products we’ve been bringing to the market, so we don’t think we have ever seen, from our company, ripoff prices,” Schultz said.

“I know there have been episodes with other, smaller companies in the United States, which is very regrettable,” he said. “But in our case, we believe we bring true value to the patients.”