May 23, 2025
TOPLINE
In case you missed it, prices for newly launched U.S. pharmaceuticals have more than doubled last year compared to 2021 according to a new Reuters analysis. Of the 45 medicines surveyed in 2024, the median annual list price was more than $370,000 compared to the media launch price of $300,000 in 2023 and $222,000 in 2022. A separate study published in the JAMA Network based on the same criteria as the Reuters survey found that the media launch price for 30 drugs was $180,000 in 2021.
The Reuters analysis is yet another example of Big Pharma’s setting launch prices that are outrageously high to pad their bottom line, and the industry shows no sign of stopping. The article quotes William Padula, a professor of pharmaceutical and health economics at the University of Southern California, who noted that “there is no indication that the trend will slow.”
Drugmakers are given the incentive of longer periods of market exclusivity if they invest in research for rare diseases, allowing pharmaceutical companies to continue to game the system and set sky-high list prices. For example, Pfizer priced their hemophilia gene therapy drug Beqvez at a whopping $3.5 million last year. The report found that “pharmaceutical companies say new medicines offer cost-saving value, including potentially fewer emergency room visits and hospital stays, and with some treatments using gene editing, the possibility of a cure.” Despite Big Pharma’s claims of cost-saving value, their consistent egregious launch prices for new drugs place limits access and places an unsustainable burden on American patients.
Read the Reuters article HERE. Read more on bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“There's a reason why when you watch the news now, you're basically watching … people dancing in the fields and singing with these drug ads nonstop in the commercial breaks — because they are so expensive.”
- Martin Makary, Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
DATA POINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
$18 Billion
The pharmaceutical industry’s 2023 advertising spend in the United States, according to a report from the University of Pittsburgh Law Review.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@IMAKglobal: “Merck is changing the way Keytruda is delivered, from an IV infusion to a subcutaneous injection, so it can thwart biosimilar competition and continue price gouging people with cancer. It's a tactic known as “product hopping" and it's a form of patent abuse. Here’s how it works.”
@AFergusonFTC: “Today the @FTC sent warnings to companies that have improperly listed drug patents. Improper listings can harm competition and lead to higher drug prices.”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Inside Health Policy: FTC Launches Third Crackdown On Orange Book Listings, Marking First Action Under Trump Admin
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday (May 21) escalated its crackdown on what it calls improper patent listings in FDA’s Orange Book that delay generic competition and keep drug prices high, issuing a new round of challenges targeting more than 200 patents protecting popular brand-name medications used to treat asthma, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and severe allergic reactions. The move marks FTC’s third wave of such actions in under a year--and the first set of warning letters issued since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Law360: GOP FTC Renews Calls For Orange Book Patent Delistings
The now-Republican controlled Federal Trade Commission again called on Teva, Novartis, Mylan and other drugmakers to remove patents from a key federal database that partially insulates their drugs from generic competition, arguing Wednesday the patents cover "devices," not drugs, and thus don't warrant such protection. Armed with a December Federal Circuit decision finding that several Teva Pharmaceuticals inhaler patents don't belong in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book, the FTC issued a third round of warning letters demanding that drugmakers, including Teva, who continue to refuse to remove their patents from the database do so now.
Endpoints News: Teva, Novartis Get Fresh Warnings From FTC Over Orange Book Patent Listings
The FTC is continuing its campaign against drug patents that it claims are improperly listed in an FDA database known as the Orange Book, carrying over an approach started under the Biden administration. The antitrust regulator on Wednesday sent a fresh round of warning letters to three Teva entities, Novartis, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Viatris’ Mylan Specialty, and Covis Pharma. The letters allege that the companies failed to remove “improperly listed device patents” that cover treatments for asthma, diabetes and more from the patent database.
PHARMA’S POOR PROGNOSIS
TechTarget: How GLP-1 Drug Patents Worsen Healthcare Disparities
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have turned GLP-1 receptor agonists into multibillion-dollar powerhouses, but at what cost to patients and public health? According to I-MAK's April report, these companies use strategic patent extensions to cement high market caps and shareholder payouts all while deepening treatment access issues for Black Americans and other underserved populations. Currently, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists rely on two active pharmaceutical ingredients -- semaglutide and tirzepatide. However, they are marketed across five brands FDA-approved to treat either diabetes (Ozempic, Rybelsus, Mounjaro) or aid in weight loss (Wegovy, Zepbound).
Reuters: Prices For New US Drugs Doubled In 4 Years As Focus On Rare Disease Grows
U.S. prices for newly-launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled last year compared to 2021, as companies leveraged scientific advances to develop more therapies for rare diseases, which typically command high prices, a Reuters analysis found. The median annual list price for a new drug was over $370,000 in 2024, according to the Reuters survey of 45 medicines. In 2021, the median price was $180,000 for the 30 drugs first marketed through mid-July, according to a study published in JAMA based on the same criteria. The median launch price was $300,000 in 2023 and $222,000 in 2022.
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