Prices of US branded prescription drugs rose 13 percent in 2016
By
Brad Dixon
2 June 2017
According to the National Drug Index put out by the health care technology company Truveris in early May, the prices of branded drugs rose by 13 percent last year, while drug prices overall increased by 8.8 percent.
The rise in drug prices is 318 percent higher than the rise in the costs of goods due to inflation, according to the report. Truveris data for the first quarter of 2017 continued to show drug price hikes outpace inflation.
Over the past three years, drug prices have increased an average of 10 percent each year.
“Actual drug price inflation hurts the patient the most, especially individuals with high deductibles, coinsurance or no insurance at all,” A.J. Loiacono, a co-founder and chief innovation officer at Truveris, said in a statement released with the report.
The release of the Truveris data follows a report issued by Credit Suisse in April, which found that the price hikes by drug companies were responsible for 100 percent of the industry’s growth in 2016. For major biopharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie, Allergan, Amgen, Biogen, Eli Lilly, Merck and Pfizer, the report found that price increases represented at least 100 percent of their net income growth.
“Despite public scrutiny, we estimate US net price rises contributed $8.7 billion in 2016 to net income, 100% of sector EPS [earnings per share] growth,” said the report, according to Business Insider.
This past January, the month in which drug companies usually introduce their price hikes, the industry raised the list prices of 2,353 prescription drugs, according to an analysis released in February by the investment firm Raymond James & Associates. The firm found that although there were fewer price…