corner
Healthy Skepticism
Join us to help reduce harm from misleading health information.
Increase font size   Decrease font size   Print-friendly view   Print
Register Log in

Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5506

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

Young K.
Brand-Name Drug Prices Rise Faster Than Inflation in U.S. Study
Bloomberg 2006 Jun 21
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aT609ezo_jpY&refer=top_world_news


Full text:

Brand-Name Drug Prices Rise Faster Than Inflation in U.S. Study

June 21 (Bloomberg) — Drugmakers raised U.S. prices for brand-name medicines in the first quarter almost four times as fast as inflation while generic prices were unchanged, two reports found.

The average price for the most widely prescribed brand-name drugs, including cholesterol and sleeping pills, rose 3.9 percent in the first quarter, said AARP, a consumer group for people 50 and older. Inflation was 1.1 percent in the first three months this year, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

The jump in prices for branded medicines was the biggest in the six years AARP has been compiling the report. The Washington-based group called the increase a ``disturbing reversal’‘ as the rate of drug-price gains had been slowing since mid-2004. The quarter was the first in which drugmakers didn’t raise generic prices since AARP began tracking increases in 2001.

``It highlights the payoff of moving people away from brand-name drugs and toward generics,’‘ said Larry Levitt, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Menlo Park, California, that focuses on health care. ``Not only are they cheaper, but the gap between the price for generics and the price for brand-name drugs is growing.’‘

AARP analyzed generic and brand-name drug prices in two separate reports released today. The first report examined the prices paid by wholesalers for 193 of the most widely prescribed brand-name medicines, such as Pfizer Inc.‘s Lipitor. Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug, had a 6.5 percent price increase in the quarter.

Ambien’s 9.9 Percent

The biggest rise was 9.9 percent for French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA’s Ambien sleeping pill, the report found.

Pfizer raised the wholesale cost for most of its prescription products Jan. 1 for the first time in 12 months, said Vanessa Aristide, a company spokeswoman, in an e-mailed statement. The increases included 5.4 percent for Lipitor, she said.

Consumers may be seeing bigger increases because the average co-payment charged by medical insurance companies rose 11 to 15 percent a year from 2001 to 2005 while Pfizer’s average retail price increase was 3.3 percent, Aristide said, citing a 2005 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Sanofi prices Ambien more competitively than rival sleeping pills, said Marc Greene, a company spokesman, in an e-mailed statement.

The second AARP report examined the prices of the 75 generic drugs most often prescribed for Americans 50 and over. Less information is available about generic than brand-name drugs, limiting the AARP’s analysis, the organization said. The research is based on the highest possible cost for a generic drug and doesn’t include discounts.

Drugmakers Comment

``Contrary to AARP’s erroneous conclusions, there is good news for America’s seniors,’‘ said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a Washington-based industry trade group, in an e-mailed statement. ``The latest official U.S. Government data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that drug prices are growing at a rate identical to medical inflation, an increase of 1.6 percent from January 2006 to May 2006.’‘

Families USA, a separate Washington-based consumer group, yesterday issued a report finding ``virtually all’‘ of the insurance plans administering a federal drug benefit had raised their prices for medicines this year.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Kerry Young in Washingt@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 21, 2006 00:03 EDT

 

  Healthy Skepticism on RSS   Healthy Skepticism on Facebook   Healthy Skepticism on Twitter

Please
Click to Register

(read more)

then
Click to Log in
for free access to more features of this website.

Forgot your username or password?

You are invited to
apply for membership
of Healthy Skepticism,
if you support our aims.

Pay a subscription

Support our work with a donation

Buy Healthy Skepticism T Shirts


If there is something you don't like, please tell us. If you like our work, please tell others.

Email a Friend








As an advertising man, I can assure you that advertising which does not work does not continue to run. If experience did not show beyond doubt that the great majority of doctors are splendidly responsive to current [prescription drug] advertising, new techniques would be devised in short order. And if, indeed, candor, accuracy, scientific completeness, and a permanent ban on cartoons came to be essential for the successful promotion of [prescription] drugs, advertising would have no choice but to comply.
- Pierre R. Garai (advertising executive) 1963