drug prices

Growing Momentum in Federal and State Governments

“Any changes to Medicare should help, not hurt, patients,” say the PhRMA ads. Yet PhRMA’s actions tell a different story.

Turing Pharmaceuticals recently faced intense public criticism after the company bought a 62-year-old drug and increased its price by 5,000 percent. Turing’s unusually outspoken chief executive officer, Martin Shkreli, strongly defended the decision, even going so far as to argue that the new price was still below market value. Shkreli’s brazenly unapologetic attitude — along with some eyebrow-raising behavior on social media — quickly earned him the title of “ most-hated man in the United States.” A few months later, his arrest on unrelated charges of securities fraud was widely greeted with cheers.

Thanks to drug manufacturer price hikes, the average cost for a year's supply of a prescription drug has jumped to more than $11,000, or about 75 percent of the average annual Social Security retirement benefit and half the median income of someone on Medicare.

Has this happened to you lately? You go to refill one of your regular prescriptions at the pharmacy and the copay has gone up — a lot.

The first in a “revolutionary” new class of injected, cholesterol-lowering drugs has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but its price tag is likely to add to the growing debate over escalating medication costs.

Escalating drug prices have been making the news in recent months. In particular, the exorbitant price tags of two brand-name drugs used to treat Hepatitis C — Solvaldi and Harvoni — have ignited intense controversy. I talked with Leigh Purvis, director of health services research, AARP Public Policy Institute, and coauthor of AARP’s Rx Price Watch Report: Trends in Retail Prices of Brand Name Prescription Drugs Widely Used by Older Americans, 2006-2013 about the trend in rising drug prices and what it means for consumers.

Inexpensive generic drugs have helped millions of Americans save money on brand-name medication, but lately soaring prices on some longtime generics are prompting investigations into this pricing U-turn by pharmaceutical companies.

Nearly 13,000 Medicare Part D beneficiaries will receive reimbursement checks from CVS Caremark, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday, as part of a $5 million settlement for overcharging on some drugs for seniors and the disabled.