Retail prices for more than 250 brand name drugs rose by 15 percent from 2014 to 2015, despite public outrage over soaring costs, according to a report released Wednesday.
The report was conducted by seniors lobby AARP, which has been railing against the pharmaceutical industry for raising prices.
“If recent trends in brand name drug price increases continue unabated, the cost of drugs will prompt increasing numbers of older Americans to stop taking necessary medications,” the report said.
The increase from 2014 to 2015 is just below the 16 percent increase from 2013 to 2014, according to the report.
“Notably, these high price increases have taken place despite intense public and congressional criticism of drug pricing practices,” AARP said.
Congress has held hearings on attention-grabbing cases of high drug prices. For instance, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing this year on generic drug maker Mylan’s price increase of the EpiPen to $600 for a two-pack of the allergy drug.
AARP looked at 268 widely used products, including the anxiety drug Ativan, antidepressant Wellbutrin XL, antiviral drug Valcyte and insulin product Humulin.
It found that 36 drug manufacturers had average increases of more than 10 percent for their name-brand drugs last year. The rate was more than 80 times the rate of general inflation of 0.1 percent.
AARP also compared drug prices over a 10-year period. Of the 268 drugs that were reviewed for 2015, about 143 were on the market in 2005. About 80 percent, or 113 drugs, were intended to treat chronic conditions and were selected to be analyzed.
The average prices for those products rose by about 188 percent for 10 years compared with a 19-percent increase for general inflation.
“This means that brand name drug prices went up more than 10 times the rate of general inflation during the 10-year period,” AARP said.
AARP and the University of Minnesota’s PRIME Institute created the report by looking at changes to a drug’s wholesale acquisition cost. It also uses a database called the Truven Health MarketScan that allows AARP to assess retail prices paid by insurers and consumers and determines the extent of rebates and discounts.
The database is of 12 claims databases and contains private and publicly insured patient data.
