Top pharmaceutical companies have raised the list price on around 775 brand-name drugs, in spite of President Joe Biden’s publicized efforts to keep prices low.
The Wall Street Journal reports that these price hikes have taken place in just the first half of January 2021. According to data collected by 46brooklyn Research and acquired by the WSJ, the median price increase for these drugs is around 4.5%, with some drugs seeing hikes of 10% or more. Notably, the increase is in contrast to the 3.4% year-on-year inflation rate observed in December 2020.
President Biden has adopted policies to control the soaring drug prices, which have been an ongoing problem in the United States. However, pharmaceutical companies seem undeterred by these policies.
The president has implemented automatic rebates to Medicare for drugmakers who raise their prices more rapidly than the price of inflation. The rebate mechanism was implemented in December and has affected 48 drugs that come under Medicare Part B. This step towards controlling drug prices has not, however, prevented the top pharmaceutical companies from raising them.
The drugs that have seen the price hikes include several that are typically used by people globally, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, according to the Wall Street Journal report. Novo Nordisk, a leading pharmaceutical company, has stated that the changes to the list prices are in response to factors like market conditions and rising costs from inflation.
The increase in drug prices is happening despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put a tremendous economic burden on individuals around the world. The pandemic-induced financial crisis has increased the burden on people who need to purchase drugs and has made healthcare unaffordable for many. The vaccine rollout has given hope to the people of a better future, but rising drug prices can have a negative impact on the optimism around the same.
The pharmaceutical companies’ disregard for the policy changes implemented by the Biden administration begs the question of who is going to enforce the regulations in place to control drug prices. Pharmaceutical companies have a monopolistic hold on the drug industry, and the solution to this problem may lie outside the government’s hands. It requires a global effort to ensure that essential drugs remain affordable to everyone.
