India Post News: How Soaring Costs Are Reshaping Health Care Access?

Merith Basey, Executive Director, Patients for Affordable Drugs stated that the persistently high drug prices in the United States are primarily due to pharmaceutical companies maintaining market monopolies through the patent system. Drug prices are entirely set by the pharmaceutical companies themselves, with a lack of government negotiation mechanisms. She pointed out that research shows that once generic drugs enter the market, the prices of existing drugs can decrease by an average of 39%; if there are five to six competitors, the price reduction can even reach 95%. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies have long used various means to delay the launch of generic drugs. She points out that this drug price negotiation mechanism has been in effect within the Medicare system since January 1st of this year, and the new prices of some drugs included in the negotiations (including diabetes medications, insulin, and cancer and immunotherapy-related drugs) are about 63% lower than before. She says that more high-priced drugs are expected to be included in the negotiations in batches over the next few years, which is expected to reduce the medication costs for more Medicare beneficiaries.