For People on Medicare, Costs of MS Drugs Rise Sevenfold Over 10 Years

A study in JAMA Neurology found Medicare beneficiaries with multiple sclerosis (MS) saw a more than sevenfold increase in medication costs over 10 years, reports U.S. News & World Report . The National MS Society said the drugs cost around $8,000 to $11,000 annually since their first approval in the 1990s, but today their list prices exceed $80,000 yearly. University of Pittsburgh researchers learned Medicare spending on disease-modifying drugs surged 10-fold between 2006 and 2016, while Medicare enrollees' personal drug costs skyrocketed $372 per 1,000 beneficiaries to $2,673 per 1,000. MS drugs collectively cost Medicare $4.4 billion in 2016, compared to $397 million in 2006. Beneficiaries' annual share climbed from $19 million to nearly $150 million. "People with MS, Medicare, and our healthcare system cannot continue to face these types of increases, where prices more than quadruple over a 10-year period," warned the National MS Society's Bari Talente.