Fearful Pharma Suddenly Raises Prices ONLY 6.6%

Is it mere coincidence or political savvy the pharma industry’s 2022 price hikes average 6.6% or close to the 7% national inflation rate? Put another way, do the pharma CEOs & lobbyists fear a massive voter backlash if they keep raising the cost of drugs in double digits?

As the WSJ noted, Congress is “exploring measures to curb high costs,” including some kind of price control legislation, after the industry had failed to keep its promise several years ago to keep its prices under control. The companies insist they don’t “realize all or any benefit from price increases because of the discounts they provide to health insurers & pharmacy-benefit managers” that oversee employer plans. Yet, THAT is part of the problem, consumer advocates say, because everybody BUT the consumer seems to get a cut in the action taken from their pocket.

According to industry data, 2015 and 2016 were the two years pharma got the biggest double-digit price hikes. They went “hog wild on price increases” and pretty much got away with it, said one industry analyst at Bernstein & Co, Congressional hearings at the time notwithstanding. Now, “several drug-pricing provisions [now before Congress] would reign in drugmakers’ pricing power.” Yet, the question is how severe those controls might be. The wild card in the drug pricing game could be the pressure fed up consumers aka voters put on Dems & GOP as the 2022 mid-term elections loom.

Davd Soul