What is alarming is the prices of medicine could escalate further and double again in the next four years, the researchers said. The study said the average wholesale price of 26 brand-name drugs doubled in a single cost adjustment in 2007.
It included known drugs to treat various ailments, including serious and life-threatening conditions. The price of infant spasm-drug Achtar, produced by Questor Pharmaceuticals, leapfrogged to over $23,000 from $1,650 a vial. The tag price of Cosmegen, used to treat a kind of tumor, was jacked up to $593.75 in January 2006 from $16.79.
Stephen Schondelmeyer, director of the Prime Institute at the University of Minnesota, told USA Today, "There is no simple explanation... Some companies seem to figure no one is watching so they can get away with it."
Drug firms defended the price adjustments to cover the cost of keeping the medication on the market. They added the drugs are still cheaper compared to other ways of dealing with the ailment like surgery or newer and more expensive, but high-tech medicine.
Separate studies by two major consumer advocacy groups confirmed the University of Minnesota findings that drug prices escalated.
The AARP said brand-name medicine went up 3.9 percent, four times over the inflation rate for the first three months of 2008. Price increases for popular medication were even higher. Sleeping pill Ambien cost 13.3 percent more, while the retail price of cholesterol drug Lipitor jumped 4.7 to 6.5 percent.
Schondelmeyer added higher drug cost would have a negative effect on the new Medicare drug program. "Higher drug prices may lead to higher premiums next year, which may discourage enrollees from joining or staying in the program, and fewer enrollees could drive premiums even higher," he told the New York Times.
