It looks like pharmaceutical companies are making people’s lives difficult once again.
Drugmakers have also made it difficult hard for Trump administration to fulfill its promise of addressing skyrocketing prescription drug prices.
We are four days into 2020 and drugmakers have already increased the prices of hundreds of drugs, with officials estimating that they could increase more in the coming weeks.
In 2020, the prices of more than 400 drugs have increased at an average of 5 percent, according to GoodRx, a website that gathers prices for more than 70,000 pharmacies and 3,5000 drugs across the United States.
Contempla XR, an ADHD and narcolepsy drug, has been the biggest cost increase so far in 2020. Other drugs that are getting costlier are Humira and Eliquis.
Americans are facing many problems when it comes to affording drugs than other wealthy nations, where governments usually negotiate with pharma companies to control drug prices.
Last month, the Trump administration announced that it would import prescription drugs from Canada in order to make drugs affordable for consumers. However, it is tough to implement the proposal because of political barriers.
The hike in drug prices in January is no surprise. In January 2019, pharma companies hiked prices on 486 drug at an average of 5.2 percent. In January 2018, the prices of 580 drugs increased at an average of 8 percent. In fact, all of these hikes were seen in the first five days of the month, per GoodRx.
Research Head of GoodRx Thomas Goetz said, “Obviously, 2019 was a year of tremendous political pressure on drug companies and there was a lot of anticipation Washington was going to do something, so it makes sense they might be more sensitive to coverage or perceptions on their price hikes.” Typically, with increasing drug prices, consumers do not take a direct hit. It is the insurance companies that absorb the bulk of the costs, noted Goetz. Nevertheless, it affects consumers as well.
