PhRMA Challenges Drug Price Figures

According to a study by the University of Minnesota, USA, and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, wholesale prices for prescription drugs sold through US pharmacies rose 4.1% in the third quarter of this year. These price increases, the NACDS notes, are significantly above the rate of inflation and reflect a steady rise in prices to consumers, Reuters reports.

However, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the association representing the research-based US drug industry, maintains that the data resulted from "skewed methodology" that does not take into account the sizable discounts given by drugmakers to large buyers, including health maintenance organizations and hospitals.

It will be recalled that the drug industry, and the PhRMA in particular, gave an undertaking at the start of President Clinton's health care reform plans to contain drug price hikes within the rate of inflation (Marketletters passim). A spokesman for the association also noted that US Bureau of Labor statistics, which take discounts into consideration, show that prescription prices in the period to end-September rose just 1.9%. But a First Data-Bank survey indicated that prescription drug prices rose 3.6% in the first nine months of 1995 (Marketletter November 27).