NEW YORK (Reuters) – Drug dealers including Pfizer Inc, Sanofi SA, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc plan to raise U.S. prices on more than 300 drugs in the United States on Jan. 1, according to reporters. drug production and data monitored by healthcare research company 3 Axis Advisors.
The rounds come as drug dealers take advantage of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic disease, which has reduced doctor visits and demand for some drugs. They are also fighting new rules on drug price cuts from the Trump administration, which would reduce the profits of the industry.
The companies maintained their price increases at 10% or less, while the largest drug companies to date to price increases, Pfizer and Sanofi, maintained almost all of their 5% or less increases, 3 said. Axis. 3 Axis is a consultancy that works with pharmaceutical organizations, health plans and drug price and supply chain bases.
GSK raised prices on two vaccines – Shingrix shingle vaccine and Pediarix diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine – by 7% and 8.6%, respectively, 3 Axis said.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised prices on 15 drugs, including Austedo, which treats rare brain disorders, and steroid asthma Qvar, which together amassed more than $ 650 million in sales in 2019 and saw prices rise between 5 % and 6%. Teva raised prices for some drugs, including Amrix muscle relaxant and Nuvigil narcolepsy treatment, by as much as 9.4%.
Further price increases are expected to be announced on Friday and early January.
In 2020, drug dealers raised prices on more than 860 drugs by about 5 percent, on average, according to 3 Axis. Drug price increases have fallen sharply since 2015, both in terms of the size of the rounds and the number of drugs affected.
The increases come as pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer are playing a hero by developing vaccines for COVID-19 in a faster time. The walks could help make up for lost income as doctors visit and new prescriptions fall during global lockouts.
Pfizer expects prices to increase by more than 60 drugs between 0.5% and 5%. These include an increase of around 5% on some of their major vendors such as Xeljanz rheumatoid arthritis treatment and Ibrance and Inlyta cancer drugs.
Pfizer said it changed its drug list prices by about 1.3% across all products in its portfolio, according to inflation.
“This small increase is necessary to support investments that will allow us to continue to find new medicines and deliver these improvements to the patients who need them,” spokeswoman Amy Rose said in a statement, specifically marks the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the company with BioNTech SE in Germany.
They said its net prices, which reimburse discounts to pharmacy benefits managers and other discounts, have fallen for the past 3 years.
French Sanofi expects price increases on several vaccines 5 percent or less and will announce further 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.
Slowing U.S. prescription drug prices – some of the highest in the world – was the focus of U.S. President Donald Trump, after being the main pledge of his campaign in 2016 It issued a number of action orders by the end of 2020 involving price cuts, but their impact could be limited by legal challenges and other difficulties.
A federal judge earlier this month overturned a last-minute Trump administration rule aimed at lowering drug prices that was enacted at the beginning of the year. It has been challenged by drug industry groups including PhRMA, the country’s leading pharmaceutical trade body.
President Biden has also pledged to reduce drug costs and allow Medicare, the U.S. government’s health insurance program, to negotiate drug prices. It has the support of Congressional Democrats to implement that legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office has said could cost the industry more than $ 300 billion by 2029.
Reporting by Michael Erman, Editing by Nick Zieminski