The Problem is Clear: Drug Companies Set Prices Too High
Stop Pricing Out Patients
Victoria Colliver, March 23, 2018:
“We’ve seen massive, massive price increases, and shame has not trumped profit. After a while, people get numb to it,” said Adams Dudley, a pulmonologist and director of the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for Healthcare Value. Indeed, both Valeant and Teva have weathered these controversies before — just not in advance of an actual price hike.”
Sam Baker, March 21, 2018:
“But the pharmaceutical industry hasn’t changed its ways since Trump took office: 20 drugs have seen price hikes of 200% or more since January 2017 …These increases, which can be found in an analysis by Pharmacy Benefits Consultants, are in the drugs’ list prices, before rebates and discounts are applied. People with insurance don’t pay these full amounts, but price hikes still affect everyone.”
Robert King, March 13, 2018:
“But several experts and advocacy groups say policies in the administration’s latest budget proposal don’t tackle the biggest driver of high prices: Nothing prevents a drugmaker from setting a price at whatever level it wants.”
Max Nisen, March 9, 2018:
“And price hikes continue for already expensive newer drugs …Drugmakers like to say prices keep rising because pharmacy benefit managers demand ever-bigger discounts for their clients, forcing drugmakers to raise list prices to keep up. But…drug companies do plenty of price-hiking for drugs such as Revlimid that aren’t really discounted.”
Meg Tirrell, March 9, 2018:
“But large increases still happen. Last month alone, Wells Fargo analyst David Maris tracked the 50 biggest price increases on medicines, the largest of which was a 948.4 percent increase on a drug from Torrent Pharmaceuticals. And data from Rx Savings Solutions show price increases of less than 10 percent on expensive medicines can result in adding thousands of dollars to their cost.”
Danny Hakim, January 6, 2018:
“A more typical play for drug companies — the Humira play — is to start at a high price and keep raising it ever higher, but incrementally …AbbVie joined a few of its rivals in saying it would limit price increases to single digits this year, and so only raised Humira by another 9.7 percent this month, roughly four and a half times the inflation rate. For the drug industry, that counts as generosity.”
Sarah Karlin Smith, January 3, 2018:
“NEW YEAR, NEW PRICE HIKES — Drug companies began the new year the way they often do — raising the cost of old drugs …Allergan raised the list prices of more than a dozen meds by 9.5 percent, Jefferies Financial Analyst reported. Insys raised the price of two drugs the same amount, while Horizon Pharma increased the costs of four drugs by 9.9 percent. Other companies that hiked at least one drug by 9 percent or more included Collegium Pharmaceutical, Synergy Pharmaceuticals, Teva and Supernus Pharmaceuticals, per Jefferies.”
Leigh Purvis and Dr. Stephen Schondelmeyer, December 2017:
“Retail prices for widely used prescription drugs increased, on average, between 2006 and 2015 …The findings of this report are attributable entirely to drug price growth among brand name and specialty drugs, which more than offset often substantial price decreases among generic drugs. If these trends continue, older Americans—particularly those on fixed incomes—will be unable to afford the prescription drugs that they need, leading to poorer health outcomes and higher health care costs in the future.”
Walecia Konrad, June 26, 2017:
“As PBMs negotiate more discounts and rebates, pharmaceutical companies have been raising prices at a record rate, in part to preserve the industry’s high profit margins.”
Robert Langreth, Michael Keller and Christopher Cannon, June 29, 2016:
“’List price increases “are accelerating across the board,’ said Jim Yocum, senior vice president for Connecture. His analysis found that brand drug list prices, on average, rose 11.5 percent a year since 2012. ‘Rebates can’t keep up.’”