US drug prices before elections provokes voter ire

The pharmaceutical industry is facing a barrage of criticism in the USA, after a report by a health care market research firm Delta Marketing Dynamics revealed that wholesale prices for the 50 highest-prices prescription drugs grew 7.82% in 2007, accelerating from the 6.73% and 6.22% recording in the two previous years. From 2005 to 2007, France-based drug major Sanofi-Aventis' insomnia therapy Ambien (zolpidem) became 70.1% more expensive, while UK-headquartered drug major GlaxoSmithKline raised the price of an antidepressant, Wellbutrin XL (bupropion), by 44.5%. Both drugs face generic competition.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the price rises were for drugs about to reach patent expiry and only concern wholesale or list prices for drugs. With marketing discounts and reductions achieved via negotiation with purchasers, such as pharmacy benefit managers (Marketletters passim), the WSJ noted that these prices may not reflect actual prices paid by patients or insurers.

There is a debate as whether drug prices would actually fall in the event of direct negotiation between the US federal government, on behalf of Medicare and Medicaid patients, which account for about half of all US prescription medicine sales. Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) told the WSJ that the Part D Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors "relies on health plans and their related pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate deep discounts with manufacturers and to manage costs with proven costs." In support of this argument, the monthly premiums and overall cost of the Part D program have been at least 30% below original predictions (Marketletters passim).