ICER report identifies significant jump in US drug launch prices

The USA’s Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today released its new “Launch Price and Access Report,” finding that drug launch prices continue to rise at a rate that exceeds inflation, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and overall healthcare costs.

The ICER’s analysis focused on “net price,” or the actual price paid after rebates and discounts, offering crucial information to policymakers, given that most previous analyses of drug pricing trends focus on the publicly available “list price,” which does not always reflect the actual price paid, the health technology assessor noted.

The report, using net prices, found that the inflation-adjusted median annual launch price of drugs increased by 51% from 2022 to 2024, while the annual list price increased 24% during the same period. Even after accounting for the differences in the mix of drugs approved each year (by holding certain characteristics constant, like the number of gene therapies approved), the annual net launch price increased by 33% per year.