U.S. Drug Spending Increases Most in 13 Years to $373.9 Billion
Source: Bloomberg
by Danielle Burger
12:00 AM EDT
April 14, 2015
U.S. spending on prescription drugs saw the largest increase since 2001, with the nation’s pharmacy bill rising to $373.9 billion last year as new treatments came to market and manufacturers increased prices on old ones.
“Last year’s $43 billion growth in spending on medicines was the highest ever,” said Murray Aitken, executive director the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, which issued the report. The institute is part of IMS Health Holdings Inc., a data company that tracks prescription drug use.
Much of the increase came from treatments for hepatitis C, cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis after U.S. regulators approved more new drugs than any year since 2001. In total, spending on prescription drugs rose 13.1 percent in 2014, according to the report.
While 11.7 million Americans gained health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, they weren’t a major driver of the spending growth, Aitken said. The main contributors were new and expensive specialty treatments, which include medicine for viral diseases, cancer and auto-immune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/u-s-drug-spending-increases-most-in-13-years-to-373-9-billion
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