The new year is less than 2 weeks old and Big Pharma has already increased prices for at least 582 brand-name drugs, according to recent data from GoodRx. Pfizer, for example, has hiked prices for 130 drugs, including Xeljanz, a popular treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and GlaxoSmithKline has raised prices on more than 30 drugs, including cancer treatment Zejula.
Nobody—aside from pharmaceutical companies–benefits from out-of-control drug prices, and that is why health insurance providers work hard on behalf of patients and consumers to negotiate lower prices. But when pharmaceutical companies keep raising their prices year after year – even multiple times a year – negotiations can only do so much good.
“Americans are being hurt by out-of-control drug prices, which are set and fully controlled by Big Pharma alone. The incoming Biden-Harris administration should focus on bipartisan, workable solutions to protect patients, taxpayers, and all Americans from higher drug prices, especially in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis,” AHIP President and CEO Matt Eyles said in a recent blog post.
The price hikes continue a long-standing pattern for Big Pharma. Pharmaceutical companies raised prices for 639 drugs in January 2020, and for 486 in January 2019, according to GoodRx.
Recent research has shown that a majority of drug price increases are not supported by new clinical evidence. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) recently released a report that found that substantial price increases for 7 out of 10 drugs in 2019 were not supported by clinical evidence. The price increases for those 7 drugs cost Americans $1.2 billion.
Click here to read AHIP’s blog post on the drug price increases.