Drug users increase prices by 3.3% in the new year

Pfizer Inc.,

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which has a large product portfolio, led the way with the most increases, raising prices by 5% or less to over 200 products. The drug industry normally sets prices for its therapies at the beginning of the year and again in the middle of the year.

In all, about 70 drug makers raised prices in the U.S. on Friday, according to an analysis by Rx Savings Solutions, which sells software to help employers and health plans choose the least expensive drugs. The average increase of 3.3% included changes in different doses for the same drug, according to the analysis. Inflation has risen to 1.2% in the last 12 months.

This year’s average is lower than a year ago, when more than 60 companies raised prices on hundreds of drugs by an average of 5.8%, according to the analysis. However, he found that companies have increased prices on at least 50% more products compared to last year.

The largest price increase, 31%, came through Advanz Pharma Body.

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and its hypertension product Dutoprol, according to the analysis. The drug is a brand-new combination of two lower-cost generic drugs that have been around for decades. The UK company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Pfizer is launching a Covid-19 vaccine that it has developed with BioNTech SE in Germany and the United States. A year ago, Pfizer similarly raised the prices of several drugs and was previously criticized by President Trump for the way he priced his products.

Many of the company’s New York products grew by 5% or less, according to the Rx Savings Solutions analysis. These include the treatment of Ibrance breast cancer, which sold about $ 4 billion globally in the first nine months of last year, plus Xeljanz rheumatoid arthritis therapy and the Prevnar pneumococcal vaccine.

A Pfizer spokeswoman said the company’s price increases are in line with inflation and are needed to fund research into new drugs. Most of them have affected sterile and hospital injections, about a third of which are sold at or below its manufacturing cost, Pfizer said.

He said it was dedicated to growth through the widespread use of medicines, not to rising prices. The company noted that net prices have been fixed or have fallen over the past three years.

Price increases for companies affect the so-called list prices set by producers; most patients do not pay these prices, which do not take into account discounts, rebates and insurance payments. Uninsured patients or those with a deductible in the pharmacy can pay the full list price.

Drug makers said prices are rising along with discounts they give to benefit managers for pharmacies or PBMs to get favorable placement on the lists of covered drugs known as formulations.

In fact, net prices have fallen due to large reductions in PBMs, which secretly negotiate prices with their customers, such as employers and unions.

In the third quarter of 2020, net prices fell 2.3% from a 4.7% drop in 2019, according to pharmaceutical analysts SSR Health LLC. While list prices rose on average in almost every quarter of 2017, net prices fell during that time, according to SSR data.

In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have increasingly cited the net price phenomenon, saying they do not benefit too much from the list price increase and that their net prices suffer because they pay higher discounts to pharmaceutical benefit managers.

The drug industry in recent years has faced increased control by patients, parliamentarians and health plans over the prices of its products. Some companies responded with commitments not to raise list prices beyond certain levels, including at lower costs than inflation; but also try new and creative ways to get paid for the most expensive drugs.

The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce drug prices have been largely hampered by industry lawsuits, including an attempt to link the prices of certain prescription drugs in the United States to their prices in other developed countries. However, in November, the administration finalized a rule that sought to reduce the reductions paid to Medicare intermediaries.

The administration of President-elect Joe Biden is also expected to try to reduce the costs of prescription-only medicines, and Mr Biden has called for limiting the prices of newly launched medicines. Most of its proposals come from the Democratic Handbook for Reducing Drug Prices, including one that would set up an independent government council to determine the prices paid by most government procurement programs, including Medicare.

“Millions of consumers in this country are in dire need of information to make better-informed decisions about their therapy and pharmacy options and to avoid pitfalls,” said Michael Rea, CEO of Rx Savings Solutions. Clients of Overland Park, Canada include Target Corp. and Toyota Motor Body.

Most of the prices of the products in his company’s analysis increased by less than 10%.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

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, a major generic drug company, has raised the prices of about a dozen products, including some painkillers, according to the analysis. He also increased the price of his migraine drug Ajovy by 5%, according to the analysis.

A Teva spokeswoman said the Israeli company is setting prices to allow patients to access its products, while maintaining product research commitments to shareholders.

According to the analysis, Glaxo, based in the United Kingdom, increased the prices of the Shingrix shingles vaccine and the Bexsero meningitis vaccine, each by 7%.

A Glaxo spokeswoman confirmed the increases and said the average increase in the company’s entire product portfolio was 2.6%. She also said that the company made fewer price increases than last year and that it did not increase the price for 18 products.

Sanofi in France has increased the price of more than a dozen products by 5% or less, according to the analysis. A company spokeswoman said the increases are lower than the overall rate of growth in health spending in the country and that the company values ​​its products responsibly.

Bausch Health BHC 3.69%

Cos., Which announced in the summer that it intends to give up its eye care activity, has raised the prices of about 40 products, according to the analysis. Medications that have been affected include the stomach medicine Xifaxan and the antidepressant Wellbutrin, both increasing by 8%.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Write to Jared S. Hopkins at [email protected]