AARP Analysis Finds Prices for Best-Selling Medicare Part D Drugs Rose 226 Percent Each on Average Due to Big Pharma’s Price Hikes
Last week, AARP’s Public Policy Institute released a new analysis which found that list prices for the top 25 best-selling prescription medications in the Medicare Part D Program have increased 226 percent on average since they first entered the market. The analysis found that price increases on the 25 best-selling drugs in the Medicare Part D Program ranged from “20 percent to 739 percent” over the length of their time on the market. The largest percentage price increases were for Sanofi’s insulin product, Lantus, at 739 percent, and Amgen’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel, at 701 percent. Both drugs have been cited as case studies of Big Pharma’s patent abuse.
In addition to highlighting the ongoing and egregious nature of Big Pharma’s price increases, the study underscores that Big Pharma companies and Big Pharma companies alone, set and raise the price of prescription drugs. The study also serves as a reminder that the longer brand drug makers can block competition from entering the market, the more they can increase prices over a longer period of time to juice profits.
The analysis also found price increases above an original launch price make up, on average, over half of the current list prices for many of these products. The study found that “price increases that occurred after the products first entered the market are responsible for more than half of the current list prices for the top 25 drugs.”
AARP’s analysis is just the latest example demonstrating that Big Pharma’s egregious pricing practices are having detrimental impacts for patients and the U.S. healthcare system. Just last month, the industry launched another round of price increases on more than 105 brand name pharmaceuticals. In January, Big Pharma increased prices on another 587 brand name prescription drugs.
Read the full analysis from AARP’s Public Policy Institute HERE.
Read more about Big Pharma’s latest round of July price hikes HERE.
Read more on market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and lower prescription drug prices HERE.