Encouraging signs for drug pricing reformists

During the second quarter this year, brand-name companies increased the wholesale prices for their drugs an average of 4.6%. Same period this year? Only 3.1%.

And that is only one bit of encouraging news from a new analysis on drug prices from Sector & Sovereign Research, which tracks the pharmaceutical industry. After subtracting certain allowances, net prices also fell by 5.8% compared with a 6.1% decline in last year’s second quarter.

Growing political pressure would be a tidy explanation for the declines, but as STAT’s Ed Silverman explains, there are a lot of other industry forces at work.

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