Every time the New Year’s ball drops, major pharma companies announce the year’s price hikes. This year was no different and with the start of January, Big Pharma companies including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Teva announced price increases for nearly 250 drugs.
According to Reuters, most of the branded drug price increases are below 10 percent and the median increase was near 5 percent.
Pfizer alone announced price increases for about 50 drugs including its blockbuster cancer treatment, Ibrance. About 43 percent of the Pfizer drugs subject to increased prices are sterile injectables.
GSK is raising the cost of about 30 drugs by about 1-3 percent each. The treatment areas impacted by GSK price hikes include HIV, cancer and respiratory drugs.
According to GoodRx, the top 10 best-selling drugs facing price increases for 2020 currently include:
- Eliquis
- Jardiance
- Tradjenta
- Truvada
- Chantix
- Flovent
- Spiriva
- Premarin
Other companies including Sanofi, AbbVie, Gilead Sciences and Teva also announced increases and more companies are expected to make price changes public this week. Last year, pharma companies raised the prices of 486 branded drugs by an average of 5.2 percent.
Read the Reuters report.
