Inflation May Be Easing, but Drug Prices Aren’t

Although the annual inflation rate has fallen to a respectable 6.5 percent from June’s peak of 9.9%, it still remains high for December. This means that Americans still have to pinch pennies to survive as inflation causes a pay cut.

More than half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck (63%)

The average credit card interest rate is now over 20 percent. This makes progressives’ attempts to limit APRs to 36 percent for short-term small-dollar loans to people who have poor credit seem even more absurd.

Guess what? As is the norm, pharmaceutical companies also raised their prices to welcome the new year.

Fierce Pharma is a drug industry publication:

Reuters reported that drugmakers including Pfizer and GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, and AstraZeneca are raising prices for over 350 branded drugs as of January 1.

46brooklyn has found that the median percentage of the wholesale acquisition cost increase (WAC), for brand-name drugs whose prices rose in 2023 is 5%. This is roughly the same as the 4.9% average increase in WAC that the industry experienced in 2022, according to the research of the non-profit.

46brooklyn notes that drugmakers increased the prices of more than 1,400 drugs in 2015, which was the largest price increase since 2015.

Fair enough, 5 percent is still below the current inflation rate. Here are some things to keep in mind.

It’s not the average price increase, but the median price rise. The average price rise is the same as inflation. If you take a look at the data from 46brookyln, you will see that your drug prices are increasing in line with other items. It’s not the price of the most-purchased drug in America. That would be Humira. Humira’s price went up by 8 percent, which is higher than inflation rates after it increased by 7.4 percent last Jan. Fun fact: Keytruda is 8 percent more expensive than last year’s second-most-purchased drug in America.

This third comes on the heels of 2022, which was the year that saw the “greatest price rises since 2015”. So we’ve been whacking our heads for quite some time now with no real solution.

Americans continue to pay high prices for their drugs and this is happening even though they don’t have much. Mark Cuban and his Cost Plus Drugs, GoodRx, and the 340B discount program are the only ones that can stop this. This allows patients to get drugs at a lower cost and gives rural hospitals a chance to stay open. However, the big price hikers and pharmaceutical companies want to end the program.

I can sell to anyone who thinks that this is a sign that Democrats are delivering on their drug pricing promises.