Drug Makers Raise Prices on 500 Prescription Drugs
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) — With the new year comes another round of prescription drug price hikes, CBS News reported Tuesday.
The data comes from 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit company that aims to improve access to drug pricing information.
AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and other major pharmaceutical companies are raising their prices by a median of 4.6%, the nonprofit said. In all, more than 500 drugs will cost more this year, the data shows.
Drug prices are higher in the United States than in other developed countries, where governments typically negotiate with manufacturers to control costs.
GlaxoSmithKline raised the price on 34 of its drug brands on Jan. 1, company spokesperson Lyndsay Meyer told CBS MoneyWatch.
“Compared to last year, we’ve taken fewer list price increases and we didn’t raise the list price of 18 products across our portfolio,” Meyer noted.
Pfizer told CBS MoneyWatch that its prices rose about 1%.
“This modest increase is necessary to support investments that allow us to continue to discover new medicines and deliver those breakthroughs to the patients who need them,” a company spokeswoman said.
Bristol Myers Squibb “responsibly balances pricing its medicines so high-risk innovation is rewarded while providing access and affordability support for its patients,” the company said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
the company sells the lung cancer treatment Opdivo, which is expected to rise 2% in price, and the arthritis drug Orencia, which is looking at a 5% jump, CBS News said.
Other drugs expected to see price hikes include:
Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
SLIDESHOW
Health Care Reform: Protect Your Health in a Rough Economy
See Slideshow
Source link