HEALTH COACH - Dear brand drugs lead to prescription costs, investigations
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HEALTH COACH -
Dear brand drugs lead to prescription costs, investigations
Expensive medicines help to increase spending on prescription drugs, a leading health insurance company said on Wednesday.
While more and more doctors are prescribing cheaper generic drugs to patients, brand-name drug prices without competitors outweigh savings and increase overall spending, said Blue Cross and Blue Shield in A report.
"Consumer spending on prescription drugs has increased by 10% per year for Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) members since 2010, an overall increase of 73%," the report said.
"This upward trend is due to a small fraction of emerging and patented drugs with rapid absorption and large year-over-year price increases that increasingly offset growth Continued use of generic drugs at low cost ".
Drug prices are a leading edge policy issue in the United States. Recent surveys show that Americans are more interested in rising drug prices than compared to other health problems, although prescription drugs account for less than 10 percent of all health care spending In the United States
Related: health spending has increased rapidly in the United States
But drug prices are increasing globally every year and as more and more people use prescription drugs, costs for the country as a whole increase.
"These higher costs are incurred by consumers and payers," the report said.
"While undesirable consumption costs have increased by only three percent per year for prescription drugs in total, they have increased by 18 percent per year for patented medicines. This rapidly rising cost of the drug trend is expected to continue in the coming years. "
Results from a 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that brand-name drugs account for only 10% of all prescriptions distributed in the US, accounting for 72% of drug spending .
In relation: a new group takes the prices of drugs
For the report, Blue Cross Blue Shield analyzed the medical claims of more than 30 million customers who spent $ 208 billion in prescription drugs from January 2010 to September 2016.
Drug prices are higher in the United States than in most other countries because of the free market system that allows manufacturers to set prices. The US patent system gives drug manufacturers years of protection from competition and laws prevent Medicare, Medicaid and other health insurers from negotiating lower prices.
Pharmaceutical companies often charge more in the United States to offset the cost of offering discounts in countries with different laws.
The report finds that it is patent-protected medicines with little or no competition that accelerate prices more.
The cost of these so-called single-source products increases at an average rate of 25% per year, according to the report, more than double the average annual expenditure rate of 10% for all drugs.
Relations: Congress may be responsible for high drug prices
"These patent-protected single-source drugs now account for 63 per cent of total drug expenditures, compared with 29 per cent of total expenditures in 2010, although they account for less than 10 per cent of total prescriptions filled," Report Lit.
Many are lifeguards - including some of the new cancer drugs and relatively new therapies for hepatitis C.
Hepatitis C affects about 3.2 million Americans, once killing more than 15,000 a year. Pharmacist Gilead makes two of the big drugs at the cutting edge of drugs: Sovaldi and Harvoni, a combined pill that includes Sovaldi. Sovaldi costs about $ 84,000 for a one week diet that can cure some of the hepatitis C. Harvoni costs more than $ 94,000 for similar treatment.
Gilead argues that expensive treatment costs less than the treatment of a patient throughout his life with less effective drugs.
Related: Pharmaceutical companies have boosted their prices, analysis finds
The report does not contradict this statement.
"Many new brand-name drugs that contribute to the rapid increase in drug spending can have beneficial effects on life by treating or managing severe conditions," he says.
"However, the benefits of treating these drugs can not be fully achieved if they remain affordable in the long run."
Competition works, said Blue Cross Blue Shield.
"The introduction of generics in the market reduces the total drug cost for the drug in particular. For example, total expenditures for Lipitor (atorvastatin) and its generic alternatives decreased by 78% between 2011 and 2016 following the loss of Lipitor's exclusivity and the release of generic alternatives, "the report said.
Related: Experts ask for more expensive cancer drugs
Another way to reduce spending is to encourage doctors to prescribe generic drugs. A separate study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that when persuasive drug company representatives are kept away from doctors, doctors are less likely to prescribe branded drugs.
The more stringent the limits, the less doctors were to rely on brand-name drugs, according to the report.
"There has long been concern that drug marketing for doctors could influence their prescription, including - and perhaps most importantly - for psychiatric drugs," said Michael Schoenbaum, National Institute of Mental Health, who worked on the study.
"Many medical schools have adopted policies to limit this marketing, and this study is one of the first to document the effect of these policies."
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