Big Pharma announces a new round of price hikes

Twenty drug companies announced price hikes for around 40 different medications last week. The average price increase for those drugs was 13.1 percent, according to Rx Savings.

Many of the affected drugs are in high demand from hospitals, which have been under increasing pressure to deal with drug shortages.

In apparent response to a political backlash in recent years against major price increases, some pharma companies have vowed to increase prices gradually, at no more than 10 percent per year. Even 10 percent per year, however, far outpaces inflation or wage growth.

Related: 10 drugs topping employers’ pharma spend

Nationally, drug prices increased 3.3 percent just during the first quarter of this year. That puts the market on pace to increase more than 10 percent for the year, but it’s still a rate of growth much slower than the first quarter of 2018, when prices shot up 6.3 percent.

GlaxoSmithKline hiked the cost of Zejula, a medication for ovarian cancer, by 5 percent –– to $6,913 for a month supply. Similarly, Amneal increased the price of Unithroid, used for thyroid conditions, by roughly 10 percent.

But there were certainly much higher price hikes announced on Monday. The largest increase came from B. Braun Medical Inc., which more than doubled the price of its saline solution to nearly $6 per package.

The company attributed the price increase to major investments it has made to address a nationwide shortage of intravenous solutions. Two months ago the company announced it was investing $1 billion to boost its manufacturing capacity, including by building a new facility in Florida and upgrading its existing facilities.

Pharmaceutical companies that didn’t announce price hikes could still do so by the end of July.

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