Words by GOLD newsdesk
The average price of branded drugs in the US has increased by 18.3% per year over the past five years, despite other major pharmaceutical markets seeing price trends decline, according to research by GlobalData.
In Japan, for example, the list prices of branded drugs have seen a decline of 9.1% per year in the same period, while Germany declined by 7.5%, France by 5.2%, Australia by 3.5% and Spain by 1.9%.
Regulation of drug pricing in the US is a hot topic and debates around price transparency and ‘unsupported’ price increases have gained more traction over recent years. Nevertheless, list prices continue to increase. For example, on 1 January 2022, 434 branded drugs in the US saw a price increase by an average of 5.2%, according to data and analytics company GoodRx.
“With governments cutting prices in many countries, the pharmaceutical industry is trying to compensate for revenue loss by increasing prices in the few countries where they are regulated by market forces – including the US,” said Floriane Reinaud, MSc, Research and Analysis Director at GlobalData, adding that the company expects “prices will continue to rise in the US, at least at the list price level, while more competitive bidding dynamics will ensure that discounted net prices experience different trends”.