The federal Food and Drug Administration is charged with ensuring that new drugs coming to market effectively do what they claim to do. However the FDA has little, if any, say on whether price increases on any given drug are justified by increased benefit.
For the past several years, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent, non-partisan research organization, has evaluated the cost-effectiveness of prescription drugs.
In a report released in early October, researchers found clinically unsupported price increases on just seven drugs cost U.S. consumers $5 billion a year.
The list:
- Humira, prescribed for arthritis and Chrohn’s disease.
- Rituxan, used to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.
- Lyrica, to treat fibromyalgia and seizures.
- Truvada, prescribed for HIV and AIDS.
- Neulasta, taken by cancer patients.
- Cialis, taken for erectile dysfunction and hypertension.
- Tecfidera, used to treat multiple sclerosis.
Between 2016 and 2018, drugmakers hiked the prices of four of the seven drugs by at least 20 percent.
There’s no real new evidence to justify these price increases, David Whitrap, an Institute spokesman, told Inside Sources. “This is just waste in the system. We’re paying more for these treatments without any additional benefit.”
Do you take any of the drugs on the list? What kind of price increases have you seen? Share you story with Voices for Affordable Health.