Key Takeaways
- About 95 percent of specialty drugs and 85 percent of orphan drugs cost more than $10,000 per patient per year. Few branded and no generic drugs have annual per patient cost exceeding this threshold.
- On average, approximately 700 drugs have increased their prices by 10 percent or more a year in the past five years. The vast majority of them are branded drugs.
- The number of drugs with double-digit price increases has slowed in the last two years for branded prescription drugs, indicating that scrutiny and accountability may help slow down price increases.
Background
Drug prices are out of control, hurting hardworking families across the United States. Prescription drugs comprise an ever-increasing percentage of medical costs and drive up what consumers pay for their premiums and other health care costs. This is particularly true of brand-name drugs, which are launched with sky-high list prices that are raised by double-digit percentages year over year.