January 11, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
NEW YORK – Pfizer Inc. increased the price of more than 100 drugs on Jan. 1, with some prices climbing by as much as 20 percent, Reuters reported this morning. The price increases were compiled by global information services company Wolters Kluwer.
Since August, the price of prescription medication has been scrutinized by members of Congress, particularly after Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the 65-year-old toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim and increased the price by 5,000 percent. Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals is under fire for a price increase of two recently-acquired cardiac drugs, Nitropress and Isuprel, after the company acquired Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. . Valeant then increased the prices for those drugs by 212 percent and 525 percent, respectively. Valeant acquired the two drugs in April. In addition to the two cardiac drugs, Valeant has also been criticized for quadrupling the price of the 55-year-old drug Cuprimine, used in the treatment of Wilson disease.
Pfizer , which is merging with Allergan and relocating its corporate headquarters to Ireland in order to take advantage of more favorable tax rates, is raising the price of its blockbuster pain treatment Lyrica, which generated $2.4 billion in sale in 2014, by nearly 10 percent. Pfizer has increased the price of Lyrica by about 9 percent on at least one previous occasion. Its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra will see a rise of almost 13 percent. In 2014, Viagra generated $1.1 billion in sales, according to Reuters. Pfizer’s breast cancer drug Ibrance, which studies have shown slowed the progression of the most common forms of the disease by more than nine months, will see an increase of about 5 percent. Before the new increase in price, Ibrance had a cost of about $9,850 per month.
Pfizer’s drugs that saw an increase of 20 percent in price include anticonvulsant Dilantin, hormone therapy Menest, angina drug Nitrostat, Tykosyn for irregular heartbeat, and antibiotic Tygacil, Reuters reported.
Approximately 10 Pfizer drugs did not see a price increase, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Pfizer has steadily increased the price point of its older medications since 2012, adding an additional $1.07 billion in revenue each quarter, which helped shore up declining revenues as the company’s drugs face increasing completion from generics. Although Pfizer does offer discounts for its medications, a Morgan Stanley research analyst said Pfizer’s net prices grew 11 percent a year on average from 2012 to 2014, Bloomberg reported in October. Pfizer saw revenue of $45.7 billion in 2014, which includes $17.2 billion in U.S.-generated revenue. Pfizer will report 2015 earnings on Feb. 2.
California-based Gilead Sciences, Inc. has borne the brunt of wrath due to the $1,000 per-pill cost of Sovaldi, a treatment for Hepatitis C. Its high cost caused Medicaid, Medicare and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to ration the availability of the drug. However, Sovaldi has been shown to be very effective, and has allowed patients and insurers to avoid costs associated with liver transplants.
Drugmakers argue that the price increases are not directly felt by the majority of consumers due to the price negotiations of insurance companies.
Following Turing’s price increase, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, called for price caps on medications. Others have also picked up the cry, calling for a national board to set prescription drug prices. Bloomberg columnist Megan McArdle argues in a column in the Memphis Commercial Appeal that before any such drastic measures are taken, people must look at how such caps could limit future research given the high costs of bringing drugs through regulatory approval. She said those calling for price caps would need to prove their point prior to setting such limits.
