Drugmakers Raise Prices Despite Criticisms

[question everything]

Source: WSJ

Drugmakers didn’t let up on price increases with the start of a new year, demonstrating the industry’s pricing power in the face of mounting criticisms of prescription costs in the U.S.

Pfizer Inc., Amgen Inc., Allergan PLC, Horizon Pharma PLC and others have raised U.S. prices for dozens of branded drugs since late December, with many of the increases between 9% and 10%, according to equity analysts. The increases are on list prices, before any discounts or rebates that manufacturers sometimes provide insurers and other payers.

Some of the increases add thousands of dollars to the cost of already expensive drugs, and come on top of repeated price hikes in recent years. Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Jan 1 raised the price of its new drug Hetlioz, which treats a sleep disorder in blind people, by 10%, to $148,000 a year, a spokeswoman said. Piper Jaffray analysts say the price of the once-daily capsule is now 76% higher than when it was introduced in 2014.

(snip)

Politicians, health-care payers, doctors and patients have criticized drug pricing in recent months, saying medicines are out of reach for many patients and straining health-care budgets. U.S. prescription-drug spending rose 12.2% in 2014, accelerating from 2.4% growth in 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said last month. Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio have attacked drug prices, and proposed various measures to rein them in.


Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/drugmakers-raise-prices-despite-criticisms-1452474210

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$148,000 a year???

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This the result of Elections Matter.

Once the Senate was lost the Rethugs,you could see this coming. The best Senate the Drug Companies could buy. Hey,guess what,they don't have to pay taxes on these new prices either.

[question everything]

3. Not only Republicans, and not only drug companies

The two Democratic senators from Minnesota recently voted to repeal the medical device tax which was an important part of the ACA.

Medical device firms spent millions to get the device tax to go away

http://www.startribune.com/medical-device-firms-spent-millions-to-get-the-device-tax-to-go-away/364031911/

In the waning days before the Christmas recess, both chambers of Congress passed a two-year suspension of the 2.3 percent excise tax without finding a replacement for the lost revenue — a decision that would add roughly $29 billion to the national debt over 10 years if the suspension eventually leads to the tax's permanent repeal.

In the upper chamber, Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken worked on it, too. Klobuchar has been fighting the tax from the beginning. In 2012, her most recent election cycle, she received $90,000 in campaign contributions from the industry.

When he was up for re-election in 2014, Franken received $55,000 from the medical device industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. New about Franken and e-mailed him on this,

to this day,he will not give me a straight answer. Claimed it must slide by him or his aides did not tell him. Yah right Al. Had heard Medtronics people gave Klobuchar a ton.

[question everything]

7. They never reply to a spefici point

They have a computer that scans for key words and then you get a form letter which could be completely off the point you raise.

Wellseone was the only one who actually replied to to the point raised.

Still miss him.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Irony of all ironies.

Will be seeing him in February at a DFL meet and greet.

[mahannah]

2. Drugmakers have never cared about critics...unless they act against them.

[Odin2005]

5. Capitalism is inhuman.

[SoapBox]

6. Criminal.