After
Martin Shkreli raised the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim more than 50-fold to $750
a pill last year, he said he wasn’t alone in taking big price hikes.
As it turns out, the former drug executive was right. A survey
of about 3,000 brand-name prescription drugs found that prices more than
doubled for 60 and at least quadrupled for 20 since December 2014.
Among the biggest increases was Alcortin A, a combination
steroid and antibiotic gel to treat eczema and skin infections: The price
soared 1,860 percent, or almost 20-fold, during the period. And a vial of
Aloprim, a Mylan NV drug for cancer complications, more than
doubled, according to the survey by DRX, a provider of price-comparison
software to health plans.
Skyrocketing prices are getting increased scrutiny ahead of a
U.S. congressional hearing this week: Democratic Representative Elijah
Cummings, ranking member on a committee that is probing drug pricing, said Tuesday that pricing “tactics are not limited
to a few ‘bad apples,’ but are prominent throughout the industry.”
Even after soaring prices became an issue in the U.S.
presidential campaign, the cost of many drugs has continued to rise at
annual rates of more than 10 percent. Drug
makers raised the prices of products as wide-ranging as erectile
dysfunction drug Viagra, heart treatments, dermatology medicine and even brands
that long have lost their patents. While specialty companies have had the
steepest hikes, giants such as Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc
kept pushing through smaller rises.
“The data shows that price increases are an integral part of the
business plan,” said Jim Yocum, executive vice president at DRX.
Pharmaceutical companies often boost prices around the end and
the start of the year, and the scale of recent increases was higher than what
Yocum has seen in the past few years. About 400 formulations of brand-name
drugs went up at least 9.9 percent since early December, according to DRX.
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