Prices for prescription pharmaceutical drugs have skyrocketed, disproportionately making them harder for people of color to afford, a new report finds.
The advocacy organization Patients for Affordable Drugs released a report this month showing that pharmaceutical companies increased prices on at least 1,000 prescription drugs so far this year, with about half of the price increases being above the rate of inflation.
One in 3 Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, the report states, and these high drug prices particularly affect Black and Latino patients aged 65 and over — who can be twice as likely to report difficulty in affording their medication, according to the report.
Some drugs affected by the price hike include Enhertu, which is used to treat HER2 positive breast cancer. A recent study found that Black women are more likely than white women to die from HER2 positive tumors. The drug’s manufacturer, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, has raised the price of the drug eight times since its launch in 2019, the latest increase being by 3.49% in July, to more than $2,800 per month. Other drugs, including Revlimid, used to treat multiple myeloma, rose by 7%, to a list price of more than $89,000 per month. Black people in the U.S. are more likely to be diagnosed with the condition and die from it, the report highlights.
The wholesale acquisition cost for Enhertu does “not necessarily reflect the prices paid by consumers, payers or dispensers,” Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca told NBC News. A spokesperson for Revlimid’s manufacturer, Bristol Myers Squibb, said the drug’s price change “reflects the continued clinical benefit Revlimid brings to patients, along with other economic factors.” The company also said that most patients won’t pay the listed price for the medication and that it offers programs to “support commercially insured patients with out-of-pocket costs.”
Pharmaceutical companies typically increase drug prices twice a year, and the U.S. has no mechanism in place to set limits on costs, said Patients for Affordable Drugs’ executive director, Merith Basey. While she calls the lack of affordability a “crisis” that affects most Americans, it disproportionately hurts people of color, she said.
“Black and Latino families are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions and certain cancers… that do require those long-term, very expensive drugs,” Basey said. “A lot of that is also linked to racial disparities in health care that have been well documented due to systemic racism.”
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