Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17658

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Wilde Mathews A
Drug Prices Rose 9.1% Last Year, Ahead of Federal Health Overhaul
The Wall Street Journal 2010 Apr 20
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575194432322875278.html

Full text:

Drug companies sharply raised prices last year, ahead of increased rebates they must pay to Medicaid and other expenses tied to the federal health overhaul passed last month.

Prices for brand-name pharmaceuticals rose 9.1% last year, the biggest increase in at least a decade, according to pharmacy-benefit manager Express Scripts Inc., which included the recent number in its annual drug-trend report. The boost for specialty drugs, a category that is largely biotech products, was even sharper: 11.5%. In 2008, the price rise had been 7.4% for traditional pharmaceuticals, and 9.4% for specialty drugs.

Some individual drugs saw double-digit increases in …