The drugs with the highest price increase are for erectile dysfunction: study

The fastest-growing prescription drugs in the United States do not treat depression, cholesterol, or even autoimmune diseases.

According to a new study published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Viagra and Cialis recorded the highest price increase among the 17 top-selling brand-name drugs, whose costs increased from 2012 to 2017 .

Researchers at the Scripps Research Translational Institute have badyzed six years of pharmacy claims data from Blue Cross Blue Shield Axis, a database of more than 35 million people benefiting from private drug insurance. They found an "almost universal" increase in the net prices of 49 brand-name drugs, 17 of which saw their prices double over the period.

The biggest price increase came from Pfizer's Viagra, which rose 190% in six years, from $ 127 per prescription to $ 370, according to the study. The competitor of Viagra, Cialis, produced by Eli Lily, has increased by 187%, from $ 127 to $ 365 for a prescription. The drug against osteoporosis Eli Lilly, Forteo, is ranked third with an increase of 177%.

Nathan Wineinger, an badistant professor at Scripps Research and lead author of the study, said the researchers saw no difference in cost increases between drugs marketed for a long time, whether they were relatively new or that they have a generic. version. It was "discouraging," he said.

The researchers said they were limited by the lack of information on drug price reductions and their impact on net prices. In addition, the researchers examined only drugs representing more than $ 500 million in sales in the United States or $ 1 billion in sales worldwide.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. Wineinger said that Blue Cross Blue Shield had no influence on the study.

The high cost of drugs has become a rare bipartisan problem in Washington, with lawmakers on both sides of the door asking for something to be done. President Donald Trump has made declining prices one of the key issues of his administration. Democrats are fighting to prove that they can carry out reforms.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced that pharmaceutical companies would be required to disclose the advertised price of their prescription drugs in television commercials as early as this summer. Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar told CNBC that the administration hoped that cost disclosure would eventually lead drug manufacturers to lower their prices.

Drug manufacturers have resisted prices on ads, priced before discounts and rebates, saying it's just the advertised price, not what consumers actually pay.

Pharmaceutical executives have instead backed a proposal by the Trump administration that would give consumers an estimated $ 29 billion in discounts now paid to drug benefit managers. Medication manufacturers pay PBMs for their medications to be covered by the Medicare Part D prescription plan.

Drug manufacturers were not immediately available to comment.