West Palm Beach doc, daughter expose drug price hikes up to 1,700%
Prices rose an average of 401 percent, or 36 times faster than inflation, on 19 prescription drugs for skin conditions that a father-daughter research project by
The increase on two drugs made by a company whose CEO is expected to testify Tuesday: Nearly 1,700 percent.
"The outrageous price increases are going to bankrupt the health care system," said
What began as a database for fellow dermatologists became the basis for a study accepted for the
It got to the point where his daughter Miranda, a third-year medical student at the University of
What puzzled the Rosenbergs were trends that emerged even for drugs that were older, sometimes available for more than a decade in generic form. Their published study does not delve into causes, but in interviews they said they saw no obvious reasons for prices to skyrocket -- except perhaps that companies saw nothing standing in the way of a profit windfall.
Two drugs sold by
The per-ounce cost for that medication climbed to "15 times the price of gold,"
It wasn't just one or two outliers. Averaging costs at
Another man lawmakers have subpoenaed is
Last fall, Shkreli defended the more than 5,000 percent overnight increase in the medication's price as "not excessive at all." He characterized it as seeking a reasonable profit that encourages more investment and more spending on research and development.
His lawyers have indicated he may invoke Fifth Amendment rights as he tweeted this week about "whining" House members.
In a statement,
"
For consumers, higher costs might whack them at the pharmacy register through co-pays or deductibles if they have an insurance plan. The trend has even forced some patients off medicines they have relied upon for years. Sometimes health plans have taken certain drugs off their approved lists because of cost.
But the full effect may become apparent only later, as insurers increase premiums to absorb the higher costs of drugs they do cover.
Prescription drug prices generally have increased more than 10 percent for three straight years, according to the
"Nobody understands the cost of the drug until you show up at the register," said
In the complex and often confusing world of health care, rising drug costs are typically filtered through a maze of insurers, pharmacies and other intermediaries, he said.
For their part, pharmacists are "working with patients to find ways to lower prescriptions costs" through generics, pharmacy discount programs, and other means, said
Middlemen can play a role, but "substantial industry consolidation" among manufacturers of certain drugs has led to cases of "monopolistic pricing," said
The increasing cost of prescription drugs has been a driving factor in spiraling Florida Medicaid expenses, leading to a 7 percent rate hike for state managed-care plans,
Last Wednesday, the
The Patient Stability Act (HB 915 / SB 1142) would put the onus on health plans not to raise patients' out-of-pocket costs or otherwise affect their access to certain drugs in the middle of a coverage year.
"Floridians living with complex and chronic conditions should not have to live in fear that the medications they rely on will be placed out of reach," said Rep.
But why are prices shooting up for many drugs whose costs have long been stable? Why are they increasing for many medicines available in generic form, which -- at least in the past -- has meant a dramatic lowering of costs?
Some companies say they are just trying to keep up with the competition.
Take an anti-fungal generic for Mycolog-II (nystatin-triamcinolone). For a 30-gram tube, the price increased more than 10-fold between 2011 and 2014 -- from
Drug giant
The firm took a price increase in 2013 "to be competitive with the pricing of other generics in various strengths already in the market,"
A group representing drug makers urged consumers to keep the
"This study appears to focus on the invoice prices for a subset of medicines and ignores the discounts and rebates negotiated by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers," said
Spending on prescription medicines has maintained a consistent share of overall health spending because of "a competitive marketplace for medicines where generic utilization rates are high, robust competition among brand name medicines takes place and aggressive negotiation occurs to lower price," she said.
Nationally, it's unclear what if any changes in government regulation might be coming, but the prices are catching the attention of politicians in both parties.
Still,
Democratic presidential candidate
Democratic rival
"Instead of listening to the demands of the pharmaceutical industry and their 1,400 lobbyists, it is time that
Doctors in a wide range of specialties are hearing from patients that their medicines are unaffordable,
"In most cases, there seems to be no rationale for it other than there are no restrictions on pharmaceutical prices," he said.
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