Drug companies are now grossing $700 billion a year for their drugs and, for the most part, drug prices keep going up. The latest data show that the 16 drug companies with whom President Trump struck deals on drug prices all raised the prices of some of their drugs, reports Sydney Lupkin for NPR. Why was Trump unwilling to insist on drug prices for Americans on a par with prices in other wealthy countries, as he has repeatedly committed to achieving?
Notwithstanding Trump’s “deals,” in the first two weeks of this year, the pharmaceutical companies raised prices on 872 brand-name drugs. The drugs with higher prices include medications for COVID, cancer, heart and diabetes. Drug prices rose around four percent, with the cost of Pfizer’s COVID shot up 15 percent.
Moreover, while the four percent median increase in these drug prices is lower than the ten percent median increase a decade ago, brand-name drug prices are much higher today than ten years ago, making a four percent increase significant. The average launch price of a drug is now around $400,000.
At the same time as hundreds of brand-name drug prices rose, the price of 18 popular drugs came down a lot. And, the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug price negotiation provisions will cut the out-of-pocket cost of ten popular drugs more than in half for people with Medicare Part D, according to an AARP analysis: Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara and NovoLog.
Trump’s deals with the pharmaceutical companies applied only to what the government spends on Medicaid drugs–which already is relatively low–and the ten percent of Americans who pay out of pocket for their drugs. The deals do not help the typical American with prescription drug coverage.
President Trump’s proposed “Great Healthcare Plan” would put into the law the substance of his deals on drug prices, without helping people with Medicaid or working people with job-based prescription drug coverage.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Government’s new negotiated medicare prices for some drugs are twice as high as Canada’s
- Trump plans to launch TrumpRx web site
- GAO finds US drug prices more than four times those in France
- 2026: Medicare Part D prescription drug costs and benefits
- Online pharmacies can save you money
