Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17786

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: Electronic Source

Silverman E
Brand-Name Drug Prices Rose Nearly 10 Percent
Pharmalot 2010 May 18
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/05/brand-name-drug-prices-rose-nearly-10-percent/

Full text:

Prices for the most widely used brand-name meds jumped 9.7 during the 12-month period ending in March, according to AARP, which called the increase the largest since the organization began tracking this sort of thing in 2002. Specialty drug prices rose 9.2 percent and generics fell by 9.7 percent. AARP notes that general inflation climbed 0.3 percent during the same period.
AARP then makes another comparison – the average annual cost for three generic meds declined by $51 during this period, while there was a $706 increase for three brand name drugs. “The life-saving drugs Americans need are out of reach for many because of unjustifiable price hikes,” AARP Executive Vice President John Rother says in a statement. “Consumers desperately need a competitive prescription drug market that balances the need for innovation with access to less costly medicines.”
AARP has been criticized in the past for its annual report for, among other things, the way it views off-patent meds (see here). So this time, AARP makes a point of noting that 82 of the 219 brand-name drugs examined are off-patent. So if these are excluded from the analysis, the average annual price hike was 10 percent, indicating off-patent meds lowered the average annual change. The average annual cost for a single brand name med was about $2,190, and was $6,580 for three brand-name meds. Meanwhile, prices were raised on 88 percent, or 192 of 219 of brand-name drugs, while 27, or 12 percent, had no change in price, and only 2 of the 27 brand-name meds with no price change are still under patent (here is the full report) and the brand-name meds with the biggest price hikes.
1- Nexium – AstraZeneca – 7.4 percent
2 -Plavix – Bristol-Myers Squibb – 10.5 percent
3- Prevacid – Takeda – 8.1 percent
4 – Protonix – Wyeth – 9.3 percent
5 – Lipitor (20mg) – Pfizer – 5.5 percent
6 – Lipitor (10mg) – Pfizer – 5.5 percent
7 – Aricept – Eisai – 13.9 percent
8 – Fosamax – Merck – 6.7 percent
9 – Norvasc – Pfizer – 5.0 percent
10 – Advair – GlaxoSmithKline – 7 percent