Prices for the 20 top-selling medicines in the world are on average three times higher in the United States than in Britain, according to an analysis carried out for the news service Reuters. Researchers at the University of Liverpool conducted the analysis.
This may not come as a surprise for anyone who has been watching the sharp rise in prices of drugs in the United States, but the finding underscores the differences between drug prices in different parts of the world. It also adds fuel to heated arguments for lower drug costs from critics of the pharmaceutical industry, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The 20 medicines evaluated account for 15% of pharmaceutical spending worldwide in 2014.
The researchers also found that prices in the United States were consistently higher than in other parts of Europe. They were six times higher than in Brazil and 16 times higher than the average in the country with the lowest price for each drug, which was usually India.
The United States leaves drug pricing to market competition. In other countries, governments directly or indirectly control the costs of drugs. The United States is the most profitable market for pharmaceutical manufacturers, leading to complaints that people in the United States are basically subsidizing health systems elsewhere. In recent years, there have been annual increases in U.S. drug prices that are above the rate of inflation while governments in Europe have capped costs or even pushed prices down. U.S. prices for top brand-name drugs jumped 127% between 2008 and 2014, compared with an 11% rise in prices for common household goods, according to Express Scripts, the largest U.S. manager of drug plans, the Reuters article noted.
The U.S. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America says that international comparisons are misleading because health insurers in the United States get discounts as a result of "aggressive negotiation." However, similar discounts are also offered to big European buyers such as Britain's National Health Service. The industry also notes the availability of access schemes that provide medications for people who cannot afford them.
A recent controversy in the United States was prompted by the Turing Pharmaceuticals raising the price of a drug to treat a parasitic infection from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill from $13.50. It has since promised to roll back that increase. But the same medicine is sold in Britain by GlaxoSmithKline for 43 pence (66 cents).
Reuters has a graphic comparing the costs of drugs in the United States and Britain here.
