Drugmakers Raise Prices 3.3 Percent in the New Year

About 70 drugmakers raised prices in the United States on Jan. 1, 2021, by an average of 3.3 percent, reveals a study cited by the Wall Street Journal and conducted by Rx Savings Solutions, which sells software to employers and health plans. This figure includes changes to different doses for the same drug, indicated the analysis, which noted that inflation registered at 1.2 percent for the most recent 12 months. The largest price increase was at 31 percent for U.K.-based Advanz Pharma's hypertension product Dutoprol. The drug is a branded combination of two lower-cost generic medicines. New York-based Pfizer raised the prices on many of its products by 5 percent or less, including breast-cancer treatment Ibrance, rheumatoid arthritis therapy Xeljanz, and pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar, according to the analysis. Meanwhile, during the third quarter of 2020, net prices fell 2.3 percent versus a 4.7 percent drop in 2019, according to analysts at SSR Health LLC.