Pharmaceutical companies will set median starting retail prices for 2023 35% higher than a year earlier, Reuters reported on Friday, despite continued efforts by the Biden administration to curb rising costs.
The median list price of drugs on the market, many for rare diseases, will be $300,000 in 2023, up from a median price of $222,000 in 2022. according to Reuters analysis of 47 drugs. The Biden administration aims to keep drug prices under control, announcing measures such as imposing automatic Medicare rebates on drug companies that raise drug prices faster than inflation, which doesn’t cover starting list prices. (Related: U.S. food spending as a percentage of income reaches highest level in more than 30 years)
“We created a lot of incentives for innovation in rare diseases, and the market responded,” Dana Goldman, director of the Schaefer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California, told Reuters. She added: “We hope that eventually there will be competition for treatments in this area and prices will come down.”
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According to Reuters, the rise in median prices partly reflects companies investing in more expensive and rarer treatments such as muscular dystrophy, leaving fewer potential customers to recoup costs. It means it. The most expensive drug added to the market in 2023 was Veopoz for CHAPLE disease at $1.8 million per year, and the cheapest drug was the diabetes drug Brenzavvy at $576 per year.
Biden first announced In November 2021, a plan to lower drug prices was announced in 2021, including allowing Medicare to negotiate prices, imposing penalties on companies that raise prices rapidly, and capping out-of-pocket costs for the elderly and disabled. It was formulated in November.Regulations for drug price reductions were subsequently established. It contains It was included in the Inflation Control Act, which was signed into law in August 2022.
In August 2023, the Biden administration announced a list of 10 drugs that would be required to negotiate prices with Medicare under the threat of imposing sales taxes of up to 95% if Medicare doesn’t cooperate. Negotiations are currently underway and are expected to come into force in 2026.
Some experts believe that by imposing limits on how quickly drug companies can raise prices, drug companies can set initial list prices higher and quickly raise prices, regardless of what customers actually pay through insurance. They argue that there is no longer a need for it.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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