Rise in drug costs to US hospitals and clinics slowing in 2013

Although medicine costs will continue to rise in 2013 by as much as 4%, the increase is projected to be less than in previous years, according to a report in the advance on-line publication of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, the journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

Titled Projecting Future Drug Expenditures in US Non-Federal Hospitals and Clinics - 2013," the report looked at drug expenditure trends in 2011 and 2012, projects drug expenditures for 2013 and examines factors likely to influence drug expenditures. Based on a variety of data, including new drug approvals and patent expirations, the authors project a 1%–3% increase in drug expenditures across all settings, a 2%–4% rise in expenditures for clinic-administered drugs, and a 1.5% increase in hospital drug expenditures for 2013.

"In the aggregate, drug expenditure growth is moderating, especially in the hospital setting," according to the report's principal author, James Hoffman, who is the medication outcomes and safety officer and an associate member in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at St Jude Children's Research Hospital. "But when we focus on specific drugs, such as drugs frequently used in clinics, we also see dramatic increases in expenditures. Cancer therapies in particular stand out as costly drugs for hospitals and clinics, and the paper summarizes the high costs for new oncology agents that came on the market in 2012 and the top 20 antineoplastic drug expenditures in clinics in 2011 and 2012," he added.