Let’s set the record straight: Brand name drug companies are responsible for setting and hiking prescription drug prices — and game the system to extend market exclusivity on their products, undermine competition from more affordable alternatives in the market and keep prescription drug prices high.

Now, Big Pharma is continuing to point the finger at others through a debunked blame game meant to deflect attention and evade accountability for the pharmaceutical industry’s egregious practices.

THE SAME TIRED TACTICS

Millions of dollars in advertising from Big Pharma attempts to place blame for high prescription drug prices on nearly everybody except brand name drug manufacturers.

Big Pharma’s campaign uses many of the same debunked and misleading arguments the industry has pushed for years to deflect blame for prescription drug prices.

THE REAL CULPRIT BEHIND OUT-OF-CONTROL DRUG PRICES? BIG PHARMA’S PRICE HIKES, SKYROCKETING LAUNCH PRICES AND ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES

Big Pharma’s repeated price hikes and skyrocketing launch prices for new drugs have contributed to a crisis of prescription drug affordability. Meanwhile, the industry continues to engage in anti-competitive tactics to game the patent system, prolonging the profits they can make on their best-selling products and preventing patients from accessing more affordable alternatives.

BIANNUAL PRICE HIKES

Big Pharma Hiked Prices on 575 Brand Name Prescription Drugs in First Two Days of 2025

• A NPR article in January found Big Pharma companies “raised the list prices on 575 name-brand drugs in just the first two days of the new year.” Both GLP-1 receptor agonist Ozempic and COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid experienced three percent price hikes, outpacing the rate of inflation.

Big Pharma Hiked Prices on Nearly 200 Prescription Drugs As Part of Mid-Year Increases in 2024

• According to data from Patients for Affordable Drugs (P4AD), Big Pharma hiked prices on 195 prescription drugs between June 30 and July 5, 2024. Fifty percent of these price hikes exceeded the rate of inflation. On average, brand name drug companies raised prices by $620, with cancer drugs seeing the most frequent price hikes.

Big Pharma Hiked Prices on Almost 800 Brand Name Prescription Drugs in January 2024

• A Wall Street Journal report in January 2024 found Big Pharma hiked prices on 775 brand name prescription drugs in the first two weeks of the year, with the median price increase of 4.5 percent outpacing the then current rate of inflation of 3.4 percent.

PRICE HIKES ABOVE THE RATE OF INFLATION

Big Pharma’s never-ending price hikes continue to outpace inflation — escalating the crisis of affordability for Americans who face financial uncertainty purchasing their medications and imposing heavy costs on taxpayers.

An AARP Report Finds Big Pharma Hiked Prices Above Inflation on 80 Percent of Best-Selling Drugs in Medicare Part D

• A new January 2025 report from AARP’s Public Policy Institute finds that the list prices of Medicare Part D’s top 25 best-selling prescription drugs have increased by an average of 98 percent – or nearly double – since entering the market. The report found that “20 of the top 25 drugs’ lifetime price increases greatly exceeded the corresponding rate of general inflation.”
• Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Trulicity, which first came to market in 2014, has experienced a 100 percent increase in price during its time on the market, while the corresponding increase in inflation over that same period is only 33 percent.
• Pfizer and Astellas’ prostate cancer drug Xtandi, which came to market in 2012, has experienced a 92 percent increase in price during its time on the market, while the corresponding increase in inflation over the same period is only 37 percent.
• Bristol Myers Squibb’s multiple myeloma drug Pomalyst, which came to market in 2013, has experienced a 120 percent increase in price during its time on the market, while the corresponding increase in inflation over the same period is only 35 percent.
• AbbVie’s irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) drug Linzess, which came to market in 2012, has experienced a 154 percent increase in price during its time on the market, while the corresponding increase in inflation over the same period is only 36 percent.

Big Pharma Back at It with Egregious Price Hikes Outpacing Inflation to Ring in 2025

• According to data on Big Pharma’s first 250 price increases to start the year, the median increase was 4.5 percent, significantly exceeding the most recent 2.7 percent rate of inflation from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Bristol Myers Squibb increased the price of its cancer treatments Abecma by six percent and Breyanzi by nine percent.
• Leadiant Pharmaceuticals increased the price of its Hodgkin’s disease treatment Matulane by approximately 15 percent and its cystinosis treatment Cystaran by approximately 20 percent.

SETTING RECORDS FOR NEW LAUNCH PRICES

Several recent studies reveal just how much Big Pharma has been increasing launch prices on new products in recent years.

Median Annual Launch Price in 2023 Surges to $300,000

• In February 2024, Reuters released a new analysis which found that “the median annual list price for a new drug was $300,000 in 2023,” a 35 percent increase from 2022. Some launch prices far exceeded the median – Sarepta’s muscular dystrophy drug Elevidys, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in 2023, launched at an annual price of $3.2 million.

Median Annual Launch Price in 2022: $222,003

• In January 2023, Reuters released an analysis which found that the median annual price among drugs approved by the FDA in 2022 exceeded $200,000. In the second half of 2022, the median price of the 17 novel drugs approved by the FDA was $193,900, bringing the median annual price among all drugs approved in the year to $222,003.

Median Monthly Price for Newly Approved Drugs Tripled In 11 Years

• In March 2023, The Wall Street Journal released a report further detailing the extent to which brand name drug makers are increasingly targeting higher launch prices for new products as a way to circumvent heightened attention around the pharmaceutical industry’s price increases. The analysis found that the median monthly price for a newly approved drug nearly tripled from 2011 to 2022 – increasing from $2,624 to $7,034.

BIG PHARMA’S PATENT ABUSE COSTS CONSUMERS AND THE U.S. HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Big Pharma’s Patent Abuse Increased Costs By More Than $40 Billion in Just One Year

• In May 2023, The American Economic Liberties Project and the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) released an analysis examining the staggering cost of Big Pharma’s anti-competitive practices on the U.S. health care system and American patients. The analysis found that Big Pharma’s anti-competitive tactics, including patent abuse, cost U.S. consumers “an additional $40.07 billion on pharmaceuticals,” in just one year, 2019.

Big Pharma’s Patent Thickets On Just Five Drugs Cost Over $16 Billion In a Single Year

• In January 2023, Matrix Global Advisors released a report titled, “Patent Thickets and Lost Drug Savings,” that quantified the one-year cost of lost savings on five brand name drugs around which Big Pharma has built especially egregious patent thickets. The five drugs were AbbVie’s autoimmune drug Humira and oncology drug Imbruvica, Regeneron’s ophthalmology drug Eylea, Amgen’s autoimmune drug Enbrel and Bristol Myers Squibb’s oncology drug Opdivo.
• The report assesses what the savings would be for these five drugs if “a steady state of competition [existed] where generics and biosimilars have achieved price discounts and uptake currently observed in the market.” Based on these calculations, the estimated one-year cost of patent thickets on each of these brand name drugs was:
  • $7.6 billion for Humira
  • $3.1 billion for Imbruvica
  • $2.5 billion for Eylea
  • $1.9 billion for Enbrel
  • $1.8 billion for Opdivo

This amounts to a total of more than $16 billion.

RECENT SURVEY SHOWS VOTERS REJECT BIG PHARMA’S BLAME GAME

Voters overwhelmingly reject Big Pharma’s blame game and want policymakers to hold brand name drug companies accountable to address prescription drug prices.

• A 2025 poll by Fabrizio Ward found nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of voters blame Big Pharma for high drug prices. A majority (59 percent) of voters report that drug company profits are to blame for high drug prices, compared to only six percent who believe Big Pharma’s wrongful claims that research and development costs are responsible for drug prices.

• A 2023 poll commissioned by CSRxP found voters squarely place the blame for high prescription drug prices on Big Pharma. 58 percent of voters name pharmaceutical companies as most responsible for rising prescription drug prices, 40 percent more than the next most blamed entity: The U.S. government (18 percent).

Articles

• Read more about why Big Pharma’s bogus rhetoric on innovation doesn’t add up HERE and HERE.
• Learn more about the cost of Big Pharma’s patent abuse HERE.
• Read more about how Big Pharma is setting record-high launch prices on new brand name drugs HERE, HERE and HERE.
• Read about how Big Pharma is delaying new drugs that could help patients to boost profits HERE and HERE.
• Learn more about why voters see through Big Pharma’s blame game and want lawmakers to focus on holding Big Pharma accountable HERE and HERE.
• Learn more about market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and lower prescription drug prices HERE.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY BIG PHARMA’S BLAME GAME.

PAID FOR BY CAMPAIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE RX PRICING