NEW YORK (Reuters) – Drug manufacturers, including Pfizer Inc, Sanofi SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, plan to raise US prices on more than 300 drugs in the United States on January 1, according to drug manufacturers and data analyzed by research firm 3 Axis Advisors .
The increases come as drugmakers weaken due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced visits to doctors and the demand for some drugs. They are also fighting new rules for lowering drug prices from the Trump administration, which will reduce the profitability of the industry.
The companies kept their price increases at 10% or less, and the largest pharmaceutical companies that have raised prices so far, Pfizer and Sanofi, have kept almost all of their increases 5% or less, according to 3 Axis. 3 Axis is a consulting firm that works with pharmacist groups, health plans and a foundation on the price of medicines and supply chain issues.
GSK increased the prices of two vaccines – shingles vaccine Shingrix and diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine Pediarix – by 7% and 8.6% respectively.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised prices on 15 drugs, including Austedo, which treats rare neurological disorders, and asthma steroid Qvar, which earned more than $ 650 million in sales in 2019 and saw price increases of between 5% and 6%. Teva has increased prices for some medicines, including the muscle relaxant Amrix and the treatment of narcolepsy, Nuvigil, by 9.4%.
More price increases are expected to be announced on Friday and early January.
In 2020, according to 3 Axis, drug manufacturers increased prices by an average of about 5 percent on more than 860 drugs. The price increases on drugs have decreased significantly since 2015, in terms of the size of the increases and the number of drugs affected.
The increase comes as pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer play hero by developing vaccines for COVID-19 in record time. The increases could help offset the loss of revenue as doctor visits and new prescriptions declined during the global exclusion.
Pfizer plans to increase prices on more than 60 drugs by between 0.5% and 5%. These include about 5% increases on some of its top sellers, such as rheumatoid arthritis Xeljanz and cancer drugs Ibrance and Inlyta.
Pfizer said it had adjusted the list prices of its medicines by about 1.3% for all products in its portfolio, in line with inflation.
“This modest increase is necessary to support investments that enable us to continue to discover new medicines and deliver the breakthroughs to the patients who need them,” spokeswoman Amy Rose said in a statement, noting in particular: the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the company. with Germany’s BioNTech SE.
It is said that net prices, which facilitate the discount on pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts, have actually fallen over the past three years.
French Sanofi plans to increase prices on a number of vaccines by 5 percent or less and announce more price increases later in January, spokeswoman Ashleigh Koss said.
None of the company’s price increases will be above the expected growth rate of U.S. health spending of 5.1 percent, she said.
US President Donald Trump has given a reduction in the prices of prescription drugs – which are among the highest in the world – after it was a key promise of his 2016 campaign. He issued several executive orders at the end of 2020 aimed at lowering prices, but their impact may be limited by legal challenges and other problems.
A federal judge earlier this month blocked a last-minute Trump government rule aimed at lowering drug prices that would be introduced at the beginning of the year. This has been challenged by groups in the drug industry, including PhRMA, the country’s leading pharmaceutical trade group.
Elected President Biden also promised to reduce drug costs and allow Medicare, a US health insurance program, to negotiate drug prices. He has the support of Congress Democrats to pass such legislation, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would cost the industry more than $ 300 billion by 2029.
Reporting by Michael Erman, Edited by Nick Zieminski