Drugmakers over the last two years raised prices on seven widely used medications above the rate of medical inflation and without any new clinical evidence to justify the increases, according to a new report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review — and those higher prices cost American patients and insurers an additional $5.1 billion.
- “Drugmakers weren't hiking prices because their medications were safer or more effective than when they were approved,” Axios’s Bob Herman writes. “They did it because they could.”
- “Interesting side note on this list - most were facing generic or biosimilar competition - a typical time to jack up prices without adding value,” Erin Fox, senior director of drug information and support services at the University of Utah, said in a tweet.
In an appendix to the report, the drugmakers disputed the findings or disagreed with the methodology behind it.
These are the seven drugs, their manufacturers and the net spending impact of their price changes:
- Humira (AbbVie): $1.86 billion
- Rituxan (Roche): $806 million
- Lyrica (Pfizer): $688 million
- Truvada (Gilead Sciences): $550 million
- Neulasta (Amgen): $489 million
- Cialis (Eli Lilly): $403 million
- Tecfidera (Biogen): $313 million
