No evidence to justify price increases for eight of top 10 most costly drugs

ICER’s latest Unsupported Price Increase report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review finds that, last year, eight of the ten most costly drugs in the US that raised net prices well over the rate of general inflation, had no new clinical evidence of effectiveness to justify the increases. The increases on just these eight drugs cost the US health system an extra $1.3 billion. Three of the eight drugs in this year’s report also had unjustified price increases in prior years.

ICER also found that one of three Medicare Part B drugs with extreme list price increases in 2021 had no clinical evidence justifying the increase. The price increase for this drug, Nplate, cost Medicare patients an extra $684 out-of-pocket that year on average.