Advocacy Group Accuses Big Pharma of ‘Ripping Off American Patients’

Americans pay more for prescription medications than patients in other developed countries.

Is there anything we can do about that?

The Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, wants Congress to put Big Pharma “in the hot seat.”

In a website post welcoming lawmakers back from their summer recess, the group wrote that it’s time to shine a spotlight on the industry’s “practice of ripping off American patients by charging them over three times more on average for the same drugs sold for less abroad. This isn’t just frustrating – it’s fundamentally unfair.”

Citing multiple studies, the group offers these examples:

• Big Pharma sells a common immunotherapy cancer treatment, Keytruda, for $44,000 in Japan, but charges Americans a staggering $191,000.
• Danish patients paid $787 for a medication prescribed for arthritis and other inflammatory conditions, while Americans paid $2,436 per dose.
• GLP-1 medications for diabetes and weight management cost $936 in the U.S., but just $83 in France and $96 in Sweden.

The group’s conclusion: “Americans have had enough.”

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