Drugmakers plan to raise US prices on at least 250 branded medications including Pfizer COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, Bristol Myers Squibb’s cancer cell therapies and vaccines from France’s Sanofi (SNY) at the start of 2025, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.
Nearly all of the drug price increases are below 10% – most well below. The median price increase of the drugs being hiked Jan. 1 is 4.5%, which is in line with the median for all price increases last year.
The increases are to list prices, which do not include rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts.
Pfizer
Larger drug price increases were once far more common in the U.S. but in recent years drugmakers have scaled them back after price hikes drew sharp criticism in the middle of the last decade.
“Drugmakers don’t have much real estate any longer to increase prices over time, which means taking greater liberties on launch prices is really the only option they have in the face of expanded penalties for year-over-year price increases,” 3 Axis President Antonio Ciaccia said.
A Reuters analysis of prices for new drugs found that pharmaceutical companies launched new U.S. drugs in 2023 at prices 35% higher than in 2022.
The over 250 drug hikes represent an increase from Dec. 29 last year when drugmakers unveiled plans to raise prices on more than 140 brands of drugs.
Drug companies are also reducing some prices on Jan. 1. Merck & Co plans to cut the list price of its heavily discounted diabetes drugs Januvia and Janumet “to align the list price more closely to the net price.”
