Drug prices rise in the United States despite Trump's plan

A little more than a month after the Republican president said that companies in the sector would start voluntarily lowering prices, the above-mentioned company is asking for more and more Money for widely used drugs such as Xalkori lung cancer treatment.

According to the newspaper The Wall Street Journal, other drugs are the pills for the control of Norvasc blood pressure, the capsules for pain Lyrica and the drug against erectile dysfunction Viagra

It s 39; is the second price increase that Pfizer makes in 2018, despite the fact that other industry representatives only make an annual increase, and represents an average increase of nine percent, which added to the 10 percent recorded in January.

To this is added that the pharmaceutical Bayer has increased in hundreds of dollars the price of two cancer drugs in May. and Novartis continued with the increase of four expensive treatments in June, said the Politico Digital Portal.

A report from financial resource firm Wells Fargo found 104 increases in June and the first two days of July, with an average jump of 31.5% after 48 rises in May.

Pharmaceutical companies argue that they do not take advantage of these costs since they offer discounts and rebates to obtain contracts with intermediaries who administer the drug benefits for health and fitness plans. decide which products to refund.

However, for many patients, costs continue to grow, although in May the Trump administration issued a plan to combat this problem which includes promoting the manufacture of biosimilar and generic compounds; It also establishes the elimination of rules that prevent pharmacists from advising patients to pay less for treatments, as well as eliminating intermediaries who negotiate prices and discounts.

These current increases cast doubt on the fact that Trump and his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, can put pressure on companies to voluntarily lower prices without risking any particular consequences.

The industry does not take management seriously because there does not seem to be any credible threat if it does not comply with these demands, said Stacy Dusetzina, a drug price specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee.

mem / mar