“Big Pharma loves to cherry pick data and push phony rhetoric to deliberately complicate the drug pricing debate, but the simple fact remains that prices are rising as a result of the industry’s egregious practices,” said CSRxP executive director Lauren Aronson. “Big Pharma continues to repeatedly hike prices, including on more than 600 drugs in the first weeks of 2020 alone, and this study confirms those price hikes impact patients, one way or another.”

“It’s time for Congress to push past Big Pharma’s bogus talking points and never-ending blame game to pass market-based, bipartisan solutions to hold drug companies accountable and lower prices,” Aronson added.

The new study, from The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that even after accounting for rebates and discounts, brand name drug prices still increased 60 percent between 2007 and 2018. “Drugmakers often argue that the uproar over drug prices is overblown, saying it focuses too much on list prices instead of the discounted prices insurance plans end up paying. But this study shows that those prices, too, are rising,” Axiosreports.

• From 2007-2018, brand name drug companies hiked list prices 159 percent.
• This accounted for an average list price increase of 9.1 percent – nearly four times the rate of inflation.
• During this period, net brand name drug prices increased 60 percent.
• List prices of drugs to treat multiple sclerosis, a rare neurological disorder, increased 439 percentwhile net prices increased 157 percent.

Big Pharma’s rhetoric about net prices also ignores that many Americans, including those who are uninsured or who have not reached their plan’s deductible, are also directly impacted by list prices.

See CSRxP’s infographic detailing measures with significant bipartisan consensus in Congress HERE.

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