April 14, 2016
IT'S A START:
Double-Digit Growth In Drug Spending Slows As Insurers Fight Back (Arlene Weintraub, 4/13/16, Forbes)Drug spending in the U.S. hit $424.8 billion in 2015, marking a more than 12% increase from 2014, according to a new report out today from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. But a deeper dive into the numbers shows that the backlash from insurers--which have lobbied heavily against pricey specialty drugs to treat diseases like hepatitis C and melanoma--is starting to cut into Big Pharma's haul.
Thanks to rebates and other concessions awarded by pharma companies angling to get their new products onto insurance formularies, the net spending on drugs was $310 billion in 2015, growing only 8.5% from the previous year. And the average net price for existing brands rose just 2.8%--a significantly lower rate of growth than what was seen in previous years.
"We saw a shift in the market dynamic in 2015, with manufacturers willing to accept lower price increases than they did in the past," says Murray Aitken, senior vice president and executive director for the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 14, 2016 3:30 AM