US drug price growth modest, says PhRMA

Commenting on figures from IMS Health showing that US prescription pharmaceutical sales growth in 2007 had slowed to 3.8% (Marketletter March 24), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) says that the findings reinforce earlier ones that demonstrate drugs make up a small share of health care costs in the country.

Importantly, notes PhRMA senior vice president Ken Johnson, "IMS' findings are also at odds with a common misconception - that drug costs are skyrocketing and are responsible for an increase in health care costs. The IMS findings also confirm previous data, released in January by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), demonstrating that drug costs in 2006 rose at a rate that was five percentage points below the average for the prior decade. Like prescription sales growth, the recent growth of prescription drug costs in the USA has been shown to be modest, with [the] CMS estimating that drug price growth was 1.4% in 2007."