Drug Prices Are Growing at Slowest Rate in Years

You’d think, from listening to politicians and news anchors, that the cost of prescription drugs is the highest it has ever been, and continuing to rise out of control. However, in reality, growth in drug prices this year was half of last year and the average out-of-pocket cost to consumers has decreased. This information comes from a new report from The QuintilesIMS Institute. According to the report, growth in spending on prescription medications in the United States fell in 2016, as competition increased among manufacturers, and payers focused on efforts to limit price increases. According to the report, Drug spending grew at a 4.8 percent pace in 2016 to $323 billion, less than half the rate of the previous two years, after adjusting for off-invoice discounts and rebates. The surge of innovative medicine introductions paused in 2016, with fewer than half as many new drugs launched than in 2014 and 2015. While the total use of medicines continued to climb—with total prescriptions dispensed reaching 6.1 billion, up 3.3 percent over 2015 levels—the spike in new patients being treated for hepatitis C ebbed, which contributed to the decline in spend. Net price increases—reflecting rebates and other price breaks from manufacturers—averaged 3.5 percent last year, up from 2.5 percent in 2015. New medicines that have been introduced in the past two years are where most of the total spending growth comes from, representing at least half of total spending growth. Th...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs