August 15, 2025
TOPLINE
In case you missed it, a new report from Fierce Pharma details the most expensive prescription drugs in the United States in 2025. The list, dominated by multimillion-dollar gene therapies, provides an opportunity to review the growing gap between Big Pharma’s out-of-control prices, especially on newly launched brand name products, and their clinical value for patients.
Many of the highest priced treatments on the list have been evaluated for cost‑effectiveness relative to clinical benefit by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), which issues a health‑benefit price benchmark (HBPB) to reflect a drug’s fair value. Time and again, Big Pharma’s list prices soar far beyond these benchmarks for a fair price.
Examples of the disparities between Big Pharma’s prices and estimates for a fair price among the highest price treatments this year include:
- Lenmeldy ($4.2M Price vs. $2.3M Estimate for Fair Price)
- Hemgenix ($3.5M Price vs. $2.9M Estimate for Fair Price)
- Lyfgenia ($3.1M Price vs. $1.3M Estimate for Fair Price)
- Roctavian ($2.9M Price vs. $1.9M Estimate for Fair Price)
- Zynteglo ($2.8M Price vs. $2.1M Estimate for Fair Price)
- Casgevy ($2.2M Price vs. $1.3M Estimate for Fair Price)
Lenmeldy, Hemgenix and Roctavian all entered the market in 2023 with launch prices outpacing their fair price estimates. Read the full report from Fierce Pharma HERE. Get a Dose of Reality on Big Pharma’s increasingly out-of-control launch prices, and egregious prices unjustified by clinical benefit HERE.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Big Pharma companies not only set high prices for drugs, but also continuously raise them. For example, EpiPen prices skyrocketed from about $100 in 2007 to $650 in 2021, even as parents face rising allergy diagnoses in kids. Additionally, inhalers cost American families up to 30 times more than those in Europe, despite being on the market for decades."
- Ronald Bachman, President and CEO of Healthcare Visions
DATA POINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
$2.32 Million
The price Big Pharma giant Novartis placed on rare disease gene therapy Zolgensma, despite expert estimates for a fair price falling between $310,000 and $900,000.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@USPTO: “The USPTO hosted a listening session about ways to make prescription drugs more affordable for Americans by promoting competition, in line with President’s Trump’s Executive Order on Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First. Read more: https://bit.ly/4froCgg”
@Runaway_Rx: “💸 According to a new report from I-MAK, just four years of delayed competition for Eliquis will drive over $39 billion in U.S. revenue for #BigPharma while they maintain their patent-protected monopoly and high prices. That’s the cost of patent abuse—and health plan members are footing the bill.”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
The Center Square: Congress Must Reduce Prescription Drug Costs
President Trump took decisive action last week to address delays by pharmaceutical companies, issuing letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies demanding they comply with the directives outlined in the executive order to lower prescription drug prices by Sept. 29, or risk government action. Unfortunately for Americans, the longer drug companies drag their feet, the longer they’ll pay sky-high drug prices, effectively subsidizing discounted prices abroad. According to one study, prescription drug prices are, on average, 2.78 times higher in the U.S. than in 33 other high-income countries. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the gap is even larger for brand-name drugs, with U.S. brand prices at least 3.22 times higher on average.
PHARMA’S POOR PROGNOSIS
Fierce Pharma: Most Expensive Drugs In The US In 2025
With more and more expensive gene therapies hitting the market, one-dose, curative treatments are continuously shuffling the list of the U.S.’ highest-priced drugs. In just two years, half of Fierce Pharma’s 2023 list of the most expensive drugs has been replaced with a fresh crop of newer, pricier treatments. Each of the drugs on this year’s list are one-dose therapies, prompting goodbyes to pharmacy-dispensed drugs like Myalept, a leptin deficiency med that for years was one of the world’s most expensive with its $1.26 million yearly cost.
DC Journal: Opinion: Big Pharma Puts Profits Over President Trump’s Agenda
The pharmaceutical industry is interested in one thing and one thing only: charging Americans exorbitant prices for the prescription drugs they sell. This is why they continue to argue against common-sense solutions, like President Trump’s “most favored nation” plan to stop Americans from being forced to pay dramatically higher prescription drug prices than every other developed nation. They want Americans to stay locked into this bad deal. We are fortunate President Trump continues to put America first and has been consistently willing to take on big drug companies so the American people can achieve relief from their price-gouging and monopolistic, anti-competitive practices.
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