BIG PHARMA WATCH: JULY PRICE HIKES CLIMB TO 52

Brand Name Drug Companies Stick to Business-as-Usual in Third Major Round of Pandemic Price Hikes

In case you missed it, Big Pharma companies are actively engaged in price hikes on branded medications — the industry’s third major round of price increases during the pandemic. So far this month, Big Pharma has hiked prices on 52 brand name prescription drugs as part of traditional biennial price increases in January and July.

Big Pharma increased prices on 822 brand name drugs in January, with an average price increase of 4.5 percent, and hiked prices on more than 65 brand name drugs last July.

Brand name pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly are among those participating in this latest round of price hikes. The largest single drug price hike so far this month goes to Fintepla, manufactured by NASDAQ-listed Zogenix Inc., with an increase of 9.5 percent.

“Big Pharma is flaunting the industry’s disregard for the millions of Americans who cannot afford their medications with this third major round of pandemic price hikes,” said CSRxP executive director Lauren Aronson in a statement last week as the July price hikes began. “The industry’s resistance to solutions that would lower drug prices and business-as-usual approach to price hikes during the pandemic underscore the urgency for policymakers to hold Big Pharma accountable.”

Read CSRxP’s full statement on Big Pharma’s July 2021 price hikes HERE.

Learn more about how Big Pharma had a “turbocharged” year in 2020 while millions of Americans struggled during the pandemic HERE.

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