Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503160079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``The public should be worried,'' said Ron Pollack of Families USA, which studied drug prices. ``If year after year, the prices of prescription drugs increase faster than inflation, more and more people will find them unaffordable.''
Prices of the 20 top-selling prescription brands taken by the general population increased 4.3 percent from January 1993 to January 1994, when inflation was 2.7 percent, the report said. Prices of the top 20 drugs taken by elderly patients increased 4 percent.
From 1989 to 1994, cumulative inflation was 22 percent. During that time, the prices of 11 drugs increased at a rate more than double inflation, and three rose more than three times faster than inflation, the report said.
The drug-price increases ranged from the estrogen replacement Premarin, which saw eight price increases for a total of 85.3 percent, to the diabetes drug Humulin, which increased $3.26 or 24 percent in the five years.
The drug industry denounced the study. It was based on wholesale prices, which are far higher than what is actually paid by the 60 percent of Americans whose insurance discounts drugs, said Steve Berchem of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association.
When those discounts are included in the calculation, prices of the top 20 drugs rose 3.1 percent, he said.
Also, the study doesn't reflect what patients actually get, added Premarin manufacturer Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. A $345 package of Premarin contains 1,000 tablets - meaning it costs patients 40 cents a day, the company said.
Why did that price increase from $186 for the same package in 1989? Because Wyeth-Ayerst is spending millions studying Premarin's effect on heart disease and developing a better drug, responded spokeswoman Audrey Ashby.
``Families USA would better serve consumers by showing them how to shop for prescription drugs rather than quibbling over trivial percentage points, because patients can save 300 percent by shopping around,'' Berchem said.
But Families USA, which lobbies for comprehensive health care, argued that wholesale price increases are important because they hit people who can't get discounted medicine. It decided to track drug costs after major drug companies pledged in early 1993 to hold price increases at or below inflation. Families USA concluded that promise is worthless for many patients.
Take Pauline and Ernest Foley, who racked up a $2,100 credit-card bill last year by charging 11 medications when their Social Security check didn't stretch enough to pay the pharmacy in cash.
The Coldwater, Mich., couple spend $292 a month on medicine for ailments including diabetes and congestive heart failure. They couldn't afford a Medicare supplement that covers drugs.
``The prices on these drugs just keep going up,'' said Pauline Foley, 68, who goes without some medicines because of the cost. ``If I didn't have these credit cards, we couldn't have made it.''
by CNB