The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (“ICER”) recently released a revised study entitled Unsupported Price Increase Report, which evaluates price hikes for drugs. The study found that AbbVie’s Humira and Pfizer’s Lyrica, which showed the steepest price increases, topped a list of 7 drugs that accounted for a combined $4.8 billion increase in US spending in 2017 and 2018.
ICER, a health policy research group in Boston, MA, conducted the study to inform drug pricing policy decisions. ICER reviewed drugs “whose estimated net price increases over a two-year period would have caused the greatest increases in drug spending” in the US in an effort to “identify drugs for which there was no new clinical evidence that could support their price increases.” The study looked to the time period of 2016 to 2018 for the new clinical evidence.
The list of 7 drugs which the report identified as having the highest price increases without being supported by new clinical evidence, along with their resulting spending increases, are:
Humira, accounting for $1,857 million increase
Lyrica, accounting for $688 million increase
Truvada, accounting for $550 million increase
Rituxan, accounting for $549 million increase
Neulasta, accounting for $489 million increase
Cialis, accounting for $403 million increase
Tecfidera, accounting for $313 million increase
The report also identified 2 drugs – Genvoya and Revlimid – which had steep price increases in the relevant time period, but which also had new clinical evidence which could support those price increases.
This report comes with a couple caveats. First, the authors note that the “report cannot determine whether the price increases for the two drugs that had new clinical evidence are justified … [i]nstead, the analyses focused on whether substantial new evidence existed that could justify a price increase.” Second, the authors note that Genetech is the only manufacturer to provide ICER with exact numbers. Due to the imprecision in volume data for the other drugs, those net price changes are estimates.
Many of the manufacturers of the 7 top drugs disagreed with the study findings. Abbvie questioned the study methodology, as did Amgen, Genentech, Biogen and Eli Lilly. Roche noted that “in pricing drugs, the company strived for the right balance between patient access and investing for breakthroughs in medicine.”
This ICER study comes amidst a wave of concern about hikes in drug prices, as well as various health care pricing transparency initiatives.