STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about rising drug prices, Cigna’s plan for weight loss drugs, and more
U.S. prices for new drugs more than doubled last year compared to 2021, as companies developed more therapies for rare diseases
Top of the morning to you. Gray skies are once again hovering over the soggy Pharmalot campus right now, but our spirits remain sunny, nonetheless. Why? We will trot out a bit of insight from the Morning Mayor, who would say “Every new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift.” To celebrate the notion, we are brewing still more cups of stimulation and invite you to join us. Remember, a prescription is not required, so rebates do not have to be negotiated. And you can use cash. Anyway, our choice today is strawberry creme. A lovely choice for those of you feeling adventurous. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest. Hope you have a smashing day and, of course, do stay in touch. As always, feedback, criticism, and suggestions are welcome. …
U.S. prices for newly launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled last year compared to 2021, as companies leveraged scientific advances to develop more therapies for rare diseases, which typically command high prices, a Reuters analysis found. The median annual list price for a new drug was over $370,000 in 2024, according to the Reuters survey of 45 medicines. In 2021, the median price was $180,000 for the 30 drugs first marketed through mid-July, according to a study published in JAMA. The median launch price was $300,000 in 2023 and $222,000 in 2022. The percentage of drugs launched for orphan diseases, meaning they affect fewer than 200,000 Americans, rose to 72% in 2024 from 51% in 2019, according to the Iqvia Institute for Human Data Science. Over 40% of the orphan launches were for oncology.
Five years after launching, a unique nonprofit drug company has published data showing that consumers and health plans saved considerable money on a generic cancer medicine thanks to its “transparent” pricing model. And it maintains that the findings validate plans to distribute and — eventually — manufacture still more copycat medicines for the U.S. market, STAT explains. The company — CivicaScript — was created as a vehicle to combat stubbornly high drug prices even after dominant brand-name medicines lost patent protection and generic competitors entered the market. Backed mostly by 18 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, the nonprofit made its first drug available — a generic version of the Zytiga prostate cancer treatment — in August 2022. The initial wholesale price was $160, plus an $11 dispensing fee paid to pharmacies, but uptake was slow until it was accepted by pharmacy benefit managers and other health plans. Eventually, the gambit worked: Between September and December 2023, patients saved 64% and payers saved 92% by purchasing the generic distributed by CivicaScript.
