US will still pay at least twice as much after negotiating drug prices
U.S. pays higher drug prices, gets priority access
Medicare's negotiated prices most significant for drugs with little competition
Goal is to balance affordability and innovation
Updates first graphic to align colors representing countries with second graphic
By Deena Beasley
Sept 3 (Reuters) -The U.S. government's first-ever negotiated prices for prescription drugs are still on average more than double, and in some cases five times, what drugmakers have agreed to in four other high-income countries, a Reuters review has found.
The U.S. Medicare health plan, which covers more than 67 million people, recently unveiled new maximum prices for the first 10 high-cost medicines negotiated under the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act.
This is the first time Medicare has disclosed actual drug prices, which are largely hidden behind a complicated U.S. system of rebates and discounts. The lower prices will result in savings of $6 billion in 2026, the first year they take effect, Medicare said.
A Reuters review of publicly available maximum prices set by other wealthy nations - Australia, Japan, Canada and Sweden - show that they have negotiated far lower prices for the same drugs.
A 30-day supply of nine of the 10 drugs will cost $17,581 for Medicare in 2026, compared with $6,725 in Sweden this year. Comparable prices were not available for the 10th drug, Novo Nordisk's NOVOb.CO insulin Novolog.
"In the U.S. we've always accepted that we are the country that overpays relative to the rest of the world," said Stacie Dusetzina, professor of health policy at Nashville's Vanderbilt University.
The U.S. sees value in being the preferred customer, she said, pointing to early availability of COVID vaccines as an example of that advantage.
Many countries have universal prescription drug coverage that relies on centralized price negotiation with manufacturers, but U.S. law previously prevented Medicare - the nation's single biggest government program - from doing so.
Bristol Myers BMY.N said pricing was country specific and depended on national health systems and their regulatory policies, while Merck MRK.N said it was not valid to compare U.S. prices to overseas generics. Amgen AMGN.O declined to comment and the others drugmakers did not respond.
A spokesperson for the U.S. agency that oversees Medicare said the new law requires consideration of factors such as manufacturer data and availability of alternative treatments, but Congress did not include review of international prices in the negotiations.
U.S. ALWAYS PAYS MORE
A study by the non-profit RAND Corp looking at 2022 prescription prices found that U.S. health plans paid more than three times as much for brand-name pharmaceuticals, even after estimated discounts.
Studies have shown that faster uptake of new and more expensive drugs helps drive U.S. prices, while other high-income countries directly footing the bill for healthcare place tighter restrictions on prescriptions.
The willingness of the U.S. to pay up for drugs also contributes to lower overseas prices, said Richard Frank, director of the Brookings Institution's Center on Health Policy.
"If you've got one of your buyers who's willing to cover your sunk costs, plus some of your ongoing costs," selling more volume to others, even at lower prices, can still be profitable, he said.
In some cases, lower-cost generic or biosimilar versions of the original branded drugs are already available outside the U.S. Generic versions of Merck's Januvia, for instance, have been on the market in Canada since late 2022, while U.S. patents for the diabetes drug are in place until 2026.
Once patents expire on a brand-name drug and copycat versions hit the market, prices fall sharply. But drugmakers are often able to extend U.S. patent coverage by making small changes to things like dosage or formulation.
There are still no U.S. biosimilar competitors for one of the most expensive of the negotiated drugs, Amgen's Enbrel, which was first approved in 1998 for rheumatoid arthritis. U.S. courts have upheld Amgen's patents, blocking biosimilars until 2029.
Other countries already have multiple options. Sweden's price for a 30-day supply of an Enbrel biosimilar is $709, compared with Medicare's newly-negotiated price of $2,355.
Since most drugmakers hike U.S. prices annually, "the longer a drug is in the U.S. market, the more we pay," said Mariana Socal, associate scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noting that in other countries prices typically come down over time.
An analysis by the Brookings Institution showed that Medicare's negotiations yielded the biggest benefit for drugs with little market competition. It found that three drugs - Enbrel, Bristol Myers' and Pfizer's PFE.N blood thinner Eliquis, and Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N Crohn's disease drug Stelara - will account for more than half of Medicare's expected $6 billion savings.
Even for the medicines with no generic competition outside the U.S., other governments have set lower prices.
The most Medicare agreed to pay for AstraZeneca's AZN.L diabetes drug Farxiga is $179 for a 30-day supply. Sweden's maximum price for 30 days of Farxiga's standard dose is $35, and the price in Canada is about $60.
Each year, more drugs will be up for price negotiation by Medicare, which accounts for about a third of U.S. drug spending.
"We're going to see the U.S. pushing the market ... so that the U.S. pays something that sort of does a better job of balancing affordability, innovation, and incentives," Brookings' Frank said.
Prices for drugs included in U.S. Medicare's first negotiations 2 https://reut.rs/3MrxHZ6
Prices for drugs included in U.S. Medicare's first negotiations Prices for drugs included in U.S. Medicare's first negotiations https://reut.rs/4e704r1
Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot
අදාළ වත්කම්
නවතම පුවත්
වියාචනය: XM Group සමාගම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම පමණක් වන සේවා සපයන අතර වෙබ් අඩවියේ හෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා ලබා ගත හැකි අන්තර්ගතය බැලීමට සහ/හෝ භාවිත කිරීමට පුද්ගලයෙකුට ඉඩ සලසමින් අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකම වෙත ප්රවේශය ලබා දෙන අතර වෙනස් කිරීමට හෝ පුළුල් කිරීමට අදහස් නොකරයි. එවැනි ප්රවේශය සහ භාවිතය සෑම විටම (i) නියමයන් සහ කොන්දේසි, (ii) අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සහ (iii) සම්පූර්ණ වියාචනයට යටත් වේ. එබැවින් එවැනි අන්තර්ගතයක් සාමාන්ය තොරතුරුවලට වඩා වැඩි යමක් සපයා නොමැත. විශේෂයෙන්ම, අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ අන්තර්ගතය පෙළඹවීමක් හෝ මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළවල කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් නොවන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. ඕනෑම මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළක වෙළඳාම් කිරීම ඔබේ ප්රාග්ධනයට සැලකිය යුතු අවදානමක් එක් කරයි.
අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ ප්රකාශිත සියලු කරුණු අධ්යාපනික/තොරතුරුමය අරමුණු සඳහා පමණක් අදහස් කෙරෙන අතර මූල්ය, ආයෝජන බදු හෝ වෙළඳ උපදෙස් සහ නිර්දේශයන්; හෝ අපගේ වෙළඳ මිල පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක්; හෝ ඕනෑම මූල්ය උපකරණයක ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් හෝ ඒ සඳහා පෙළඹවීමක්; හෝ විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමකින් තොරව ඔබ වෙත ලබා දෙන ලද මූල්ය ප්රවර්ධනයන් ලෙස නොසැලකිය යුතුය.
ඕනෑම තෙවන පාර්ශවීය අන්තර්ගතයක් මෙන්ම XM විසින් සකසන ලද අන්තර්ගතය එනම් අදහස්, පුවත්, පර්යේෂණ, විශ්ලේෂණ, මිල ගණන් සහ වෙනත් තොරතුරු හෝ මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අන්තර්ගත තෙවන පාර්ශවීය වෙබ් අඩවි සඳහා සබැඳි සාමාන්ය වෙළඳපොළ විවරණයක් ලෙස "පවතින පරිදි" සපයා ඇති අතර එහි ආයෝජන උපදෙස් ඇතුළත් නොවේ. ඕනෑම අන්තර්ගතයක් ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයක් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇති ප්රමාණයට, ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කර ඇති නෛතික අවශ්යතාවලට අනුකූලව අන්තර්ගතය සකසා නොමැති බවත් එලෙස අරමුණු කර නොමැති බවත් ඔබ සලකා පිළිගත යුතු අතර එබැවින් එය අදාළ නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි යටතේ අලෙවිකරණ සන්නිවේදනයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. ඉහත සඳහන් තොරතුරු සලකා මෙතනින් ප්රවේශ විය හැකි, ස්වාධීන නොවන ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණ සහ අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම පිළිබඳ අපගේ දැනුම්දීම ඔබ කියවා තේරුම් ගෙන ඇති බව සහතික කර ගන්න.
