Wholesale prices for brand-name prescription drugs jumped an average of 7.1 percent in 2004, the largest increase in five years and more than twice the overall rate of inflation, the AARP said Tuesday. By contrast, the price for generic drugs hardly budged, rising 0.5 percent after increasing an average 13.3 percent the year before. AARP’s annual Rx Watchdog Report tracked prices drug manufacturers charged wholesalers last year for about 200 prescription drugs and 75 generics popular with older Americans.
