Higher prices for top-selling drugs meant they brought in more revenue in 2014 despite fewer prescriptions, according to an analysis from Reuters.
Sales for the 10 most prescribed drugs in the U.S. increased by 44 percent to $54 million in 2014 from 2011, according to the Reuters analysis that is based on data from research firm IMS Health.
The price for the top-selling U.S. drug, arthritis treatment Humira, was raised 126 percent from 2011 to 2014, Reuters found.
The No. 2 drug was Enbrel, which treats five inflammatory diseases that include psoriasis and arthritis. It had a price hike of 118.2 percent.
The third drug on the list was multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, which increased by 118 percent
The findings come at a time when Congress is increasingly focused on the actions of several companies that have jacked up the price of drugs after acquiring them, but not major pharmaceutical firms such as AbbVie, which makes Humira.
One of those companies is Turing Pharmaceuticals, which received nationwide attention when it raised the price of a decades-old generic anti-malarial drug by 5,000 percent.
Lawmakers are investigating Turing and another company, Valeant, that raised the price of two heart medications. A similar investigation is being done in the House Oversight Committee, which featured brief testimony from Martin Shkreli, the controversial former CEO of Turing who now faces federal securities fraud charges related to another business.
