Over three quarters of 50 top-selling prescription drugs have seen an increase in insurer and out-of-pocket costs by over 50 percent since 2012, while 44 percent of those have doubled in price over that time span.
The study published by the journal JAMA Network Open found that the price hikes are unlikely to stop without bipartisan government intervention.
Corning Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing is concerned about the rising prices of prescription medication, so we would like to make you aware of further price increases that may be imparted on you, the customer.
Two findings in the study that doesn’t make sense from an economic perspective:
- Competition isn’t keeping prices low. Diabetes drugs like Humalog and Novolog both doubled in price even though doctors can prescribe one over the other due to factors like cost.
- Brand-name drug prices also weren’t affected by the availability of a generic equivalent.
Why Do the Authors of the Study Believe Prices Will Keep Rising?
The study’s authors pointed out because most drugs in the report saw consistent annual increases, they don’t see a reason why the increases will stop.
What Can Be Done About Rising Drug Prices?
Pharmaceutical companies wholly control the price of their products, and authors of the study believe they are abusing the system devised in the U.S.
“The United States provides drug companies with the strongest patent protections in the world, but legal strategies in the pharmaceutical industry, such as patenting peripheral aspects of a drug that extend exclusivity rights beyond the original patent and delay generic and biosimilar competition, abuse that liberty,” the study’s authors wrote.
The authors go on to write that innovative solutions like the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s value-based price benchmark can help set fair prices and reward drug companies that make better products.
