Don’t just blame drug companies for rising prescription prices. For all the outrage over Mylan increasing EpiPen prices by 500%, and insulin prices, which are up 300% over the past decade, drug prices are a lot more complicated than pointing the finger at a lone villain.
For a single prescription drug, there are often five companies involved, from development all the way to your medicine cabinet. Each company makes a tidy profit along the way. And as prices increase, so do those profits.
That was exemplified October 28 when shares of drug companies and others involved in paying for and distributing our drugs plunged after several said that fewer drug-price increases were hurting business.
