Abstract
Background US drug prices are among the highest worldwide as US policy makers have historically been reluctant to embrace price regulations, instead relying on market forces to set prices. However, the introduction of a number of breakthrough, highly effective and high-cost specialty medicines over the past years has stoked the fire of the long-running drug price debate in the USA. The prices of those specialty medicines – more than $100,000 per treatment course – have resulted in widespread outcry among patients, providers, insurers, and members of the Congress and the Senate. We aimed at analyzing whether the recent debate on drug prices reflects a sign of change in the drug pricing debate in US print media.
Highlights
US drug prices are among the highest worldwide as US policy makers have historically been reluctant to embrace price regulations, instead relying on market forces to set prices
The media search on ‘drug pricing’ over the last 30 years showed that facts around high-cost medicines in the USA are changing: Drug prices of on- and off-patent medicine increase rapidly but from launch prices that are orders of magnitude higher than in the past[1]
Authors’ details 1Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA
Summary
US drug prices are among the highest worldwide as US policy makers have historically been reluctant to embrace price regulations, instead relying on market forces to set prices. The introduction of a number of breakthrough, highly effective and high-cost specialty medicines over the past years has stoked the fire of the long-running drug price debate in the USA. The prices of those specialty medicines – more than $100,000 per treatment course – have resulted in widespread outcry among patients, providers, insurers, and members of the Congress and the Senate. We aimed at analyzing whether the recent debate on drug prices reflects a sign of change in the drug pricing debate in US print media
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