A second big pharma firm has backed down on price increases. Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, reportedly announced it would not raise prices in the U.S. in 2018. That move follows last week's announcement by New York-based Pfizer Inc. that, based on a phone conversation between CEO Ian Read and President Donald Trump, prices on its drugs would revert to their pre-July 1 levels until either the president's blueprint on drug pricing goes into effect or the end of the year, whichever comes first.