Americans pay more than anyone for prescription drugs, a new report says, with a single prescription of a hepatitis drug costing an uninsured person nearly $30,000, a new report says.
A report released this month by Nice Rx finds that Americans spend around $1,011 per person each year, more than 25 percent more than the closest comparable nation, with the cost of many medications having doubled in the past decade
The most expensive drugs included in the report were Harvoni, a hepatitis C drug made by pharmaceutical giant Gilead, for which the average prescription before insurance adjustments costs $29,238, and Stelara, a psoriasis drug developed by J&J, $19,607.
The drug that rose the most was Humulin, an insulin made by Eli Lilly, whose price has risen by a whopping 1,070 percent over the past decade — making it one of four diabetes drugs whose price has at least doubled over the decade .
None of Gilead, Johnson & Johnson or Eli Lilly have responded to a query from as to why the company thinks the drugs need to be priced this way.
According to Greg Jeffreys, an Australian hepatitis expert, Harvoni, the most expensive of the drugs, costs $2 a pill to manufacture, with each course of the drug being around 80 pills.
The United States has become notorious for its high drug prices, with many on the other hand pointing to either greed by big drug companies, middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers, and too much or too little government regulation.
While the US spends over $1,000 per capita on prescription drugs, Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden spend $401 and $351, respectively.
Of the 10 countries in the Nice Rx report — including the US, Canada and eight European countries — Switzerland ranked closest to America in drug spending per capita at $783.
The researchers also collected median prices of eight popular drugs and found that Americans paid 307 percent of the median price of drugs from over 50 nations.
Insulin has long since become the face of rising prices, and even President Joe Biden has said he would make cutting costs a priority — as President Donald Trump had done before him.
According to the report, two insulins manufactured by Eli Lilly are among the drugs that have seen the sharpest price increases over the past decade
Humulin is a neutral insulin that patients using it need regularly to properly manage their diabetes. Without them, they could suffer a diabetic coma, loss of limbs, blindness, or even death.
From January 2012 to January 2022, the drug’s median price had increased from $67 to $1,512 per prescription.
However, it’s not the only type of insulin that has seen a massive price shift over the past decade.
Another Eli Lilly product, Humalog, rose 213 percent over the period, from $126 to $623.
Other drugs that saw big price jumps include kidney disease drug Renvela (made by Sanofi) with a price jump of 355 percent, pancreas drug Creon (Abbvie) with a price jump of 223 percent, and menopause drug Premarin (Pfizer). 215 percent.
Harvoni, made by Gilead, can cost an uninsured person about $30,000 for the average prescription
A hepatitis drug, Harvoni, which is the most expensive, could be a cause for concern at the moment as the rare kidney infection begins to rise again around the world, with nearly 200 cases detected worldwide in recent months.
Stelara was the only other drug included in the report that cost more than $10,000 for the average prescription.
The state that pays the most for prescription drugs is Texas, which pays a total of $35.15 billion a year for its 29 million people – overtaking California, which pays $32.53 billion for its nearly 40 million people dollars a year pays.
Florida and New York, which also have the second largest populations in the US, also rank third and fourth in total drug spending.