On Monday, Novo Nordisk, the Danish manufacturer of diabetes treatments like insulin, whose prices have risen sharply in recent years, announced that it would limit price increases in the American market to less than 10 percent in a year. It raised list prices two times in 2015 â€" once by 5.9 percent and another time by 9.9 percent â€" on a vial of Novolog, one of its insulin products.
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Novo Nordisk was the second large drug maker in recent months to make such a pledge: Allergan’s chief executive, Brent Saunders, did so in September.
Mr. Saunders also warned colleagues at a health care meeting in New York this month that Mr. Trump might be “a more vicious tweeter†toward the industry than Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, Mr. Saunders called on the industry to take control of the story.
“If our industry can self-regulate on pricing, we can all focus on investing in innovative medicines and cures and move the pricing discussion to the back burner,†he said in a statement. “I think everyone, especially the patient, is better off if that happens.â€
Mr. Saunders and others have aimed to distance themselves from companies like Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, two drug makers that have become the public face of predatory drug pricing, accused of chasing profits not by developing innovative new drugs but by increasing prices on old ones that they had recently acquired.
Another pharmaceutical company, Mylan, took a turn in the unwelcome spotlight this summer after raising prices on its treatment for severe allergies, EpiPen. The issue prompted congressional hearings and led to a host of federal investigations, which are still underway.
The makers of some new drugs have also come under harsh criticism, accused of charging outlandish prices â€" up to $300,000 a year. Those prices have set up a fierce battle from those who are being asked to pay the bill, including insurers and patients.
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In response, the industry’s two major lobbying groups, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, have started major campaigns to rehabilitate their image, a tacit acknowledgment that they have been losing the public relations battle.
“We’re not telling our story very well,†said James C. Greenwood, the chief executive of the biotechnology group, which is often called Bio. “So we made a huge effort in the last year to try to be better at telling our story.â€
Since his election, Mr. Trump has proved to be an unpredictable ally of big business, appointing a host of business-friendly people to his administration even as he has not hesitated to excoriate major companies, as he did with Carrier, Ford and Boeing â€" and threatened to go after others.
The stakes for the pharmaceutical industry were on full display at the recent health care meeting in New York, where emotions ran high and executives sharply debated who was to blame for the situation they find themselves in.
During one panel discussion at the Forbes Healthcare Summit in New York, Leonard Schleifer, chief executive of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, bluntly blamed the industry in an exchange with his counterpart at Pfizer, Ian Read, saying it had relied on price increases to compensate for a lack of innovative new drugs. “It’s ridiculous,†Dr. Schleifer said. “I hate us also when I see all this stuff.â€
In an interview Thursday, Dr. Schleifer said the industry needed to be more honest with the public. “I felt it was time that we acknowledge that the industry is doing some bad stuff, which is overshadowing all the good things we do,†he said. “And this attitude that we shouldn’t have to apologize for what we do is just wrong.â€
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The drug industry’s greed made for easy fodder on the campaign trail, and both parties took advantage. Senator Bernie Sanders and Mrs. Clinton singled out some of the companies by name, and this fall Mrs. Clinton laid out a plan that included creating a government panel that could place limits on drug prices.
Mr. Trump also called out the industry on the trail, saying that he supported the reimportation of drugs from outside the United States and that he favored allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug makers on price, something now prohibited.
But those positions disappeared from the health policy he outlined on his transition website and were replaced by industry-friendly language that included overhauling the Food and Drug Administration. In the days after the election, the industry reacted with relief and biotech stocks rallied.
Despite his strongly worded comments this week, some continued to believe that Mr. Trump would go relatively easy on drug companies.
“We’re not panicked, we’re not lighting our hair on fire,†Mr. Greenwood of Bio said. “We are remaining calm. I think the one thing that is consistent about Donald Trump is he wants there to be more jobs in the U.S., and we’re all about that. And he wants our country to be strong and healthy, and we’re all about that.â€
The industry is right not to panic, said Brandon R. Barford, a partner at Beacon. “It’s going to be some time before they push anything in health care other than Obamacare, repeal and replace,†he said.
But drug makers should be on guard, Mr. Barford said, because if another pricing scandal erupts, Mr. Trump will most likely seize the moment.
“This is the perfect pivot point,†he said.
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