BIG PHARMA WATCH: GAO REPORT FINDS U.S. CONSUMERS PAY DOUBLE TO QUADRUPLE FOR RX DRUGS

Study Finds Americans Face Much Higher Drug Prices Than Patients In Other Countries

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that net prices for prescription drugs in the United States for 20 selected brand-name products were two to four times higher than the prices paid in Canada, Australia and France.

The report found that in 2020, net prices for the selected single-source, brand-name prescription drugs included in the study were 4.36 times higher in the U.S. than in France, 4.25 times higher in the U.S. than in Australia, and 2.82 times higher in the U.S. than in Canada.

In addition, the GAO report analyzed U.S. net prices, not list prices. This means, as the report states, that “the actual differences between U.S. prices and those of the other countries were likely larger than GAO estimates.”

Some of the specific price differences included in the report are staggering and highlight how Big Pharma’s egregious pricing practices have created a crisis of affordability in the U.S. Imbruvica, a cancer drug owned by AbbVie and notorious for its near-yearly 7.4 percent price hike, for example – had a net price of $13,809 in the U.S. compared to a gross price of $7,120 in Canada. Revlimid, a cancer drug owned by Bristol Myers-Squibb, had a net price of $21,414 for a 5mg capsule in the U.S. compared to a net price of $4,723 for the same dosage in Australia.

Read the full GAO report HERE.

Read more how Big Pharma’s practices around products like Imbruvica and Revlimid have created a crisis of cancer drug affordability in the U.S. HERE.

Learn more about market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and lower prescription drug prices HERE.