DOSE OF REALITY: REPORT FINDS BIG PHARMA CONTINUES TO SET OUT-OF-CONTROL LAUNCH PRICES ON NEW MEDICINES COMING TO MARKET

Reuters Analysis Finds Average Launch Price For Drugs Approved By FDA in 2025 Above $400,000

According to a new Reuters analysis, the average annual launch price for prescription drugs approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reached $416,000 – with at least 10 newly approved drugs having list prices topping $500,000. The report confirms that Big Pharma continues to set out-of-control launch prices on new medications coming to market. These drugs face no competition for significant periods of time – which Big Pharma is routinely able to extend through the use of tactics to game the U.S. patent system.

According to the Reuters analysis, of the 42 analyzed drugs approved by the FDA in 2025, one third were cancer drugs and more than half were designated as “orphan” drugs – treatments for rare conditions. While intended to spur innovation, this designation is increasingly exploited by pharmaceutical companies to justify inflated prices and secure prolonged market exclusivity, limiting competition and driving up costs for patients and the U.S. healthcare system.

According to Reuters, several of the most expensive drugs approved by the FDA in 2025 had price tags over $500,000, including:

• Abeona Therapeutics’ autologous cell-sheet gene therapy Zevaskyn, which launched with a list price of $3,100,000.
• Novartis’ gene replacement therapy Itvisman, with a launch price of $2,664,228.59.
• Deciphera Pharmaceuticals’ symptomatic tenosynovial giant cell tumor drug Romvimza had a launch price of $1,358,656.
• Sanofi’s prophylaxis drug Qfitlia was launched with a price tag of $968,400.
• Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ diffuse midline gliomas drug Modeyso had a launch price of $832,000.
• Mighty Therapeutics’ Barth syndrome drug Forzinity had a launch price of $800,000.
• Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ RNA-targeted drug Dawnzera had a launch price of $689,544.
• CSL Behring GmbH’s hereditary angioedema (HAE) attack drug Andembry launched with a price tag of $685,200.
• UCB’s Thymidine Kinase 2 deficiency drug Kygevvi had a launch price of $591,768.

Drug pricing and health care experts outlined how Big Pharma targets new drugs with increasingly high price tags in coverage from Reuters on the analysis. “[Drug makers] can develop a drug that’s effective for a wide range of conditions but seek approval for ‘a low-prevalence disease… and get all the benefits and all the tax write-offs. The logic is to launch [at a price] as ⁠high as you think you can get away with,’” said Geoffrey Joyce, director at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, noting Big Pharma has “gamed” those incentives.

Big Pharma’s egregious pricing practices, including setting out-of-control launch prices on new products coming to market, repeatedly hiking those prices, and engaging in anti-competitive tactics to game the patent system and extend exclusivity, continue to impose an unsustainable burden on American patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system. As Big Pharma’s traditional round of July price hikes approaches, policymakers should work to advance bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable.

Read more on Big Pharma’s increasingly out-of-control launch prices from Reuters HERE.

Read more on bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.