Children's Health Defense By
By Jake Johnson
The U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s aggressive and often unlawful efforts to prevent competition and keep drug prices elevated cost American patients, insurers and federal health programs more than $40 billion in 2019 alone, according to a report released today.
The new report — put out by the American Economic Liberties Project and the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge (I-MAK) — focuses specifically on pharmaceutical companies’ antitrust law violations, which the groups say are a key reason why U.S. drug prices are astonishingly high compared to those of other rich nations.
Examining the 100 top-selling drug products in Medicare Part D — which covers prescription medicines — and Medicaid, the report estimates that Big Pharma‘s antitrust violations “increased Part D gross spending by 14.15%, or $14.82 billion, and increased Medicaid gross drug spending by 9.05%, or $3.15 billion, in 2019 for the top 100 drugs in each.”
Assuming that pharmaceutical companies’ antitrust violations similarly affected retail brand drug spending, the report estimates that “U.S. patients and payers spent an additional $40.07 billion on pharmaceuticals in 2019.”
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