January 30, 2023
Pharmaceutical corporations plan price hikes on lifesaving drugs despite billions in rising profits
Major pharmaceutical corporations are set to increase prices on more than 350 unique drugs this month, continuing a trend in the pharmaceutical industry. mercantilismaccording to Responsible.US and Reuters. a preview Responsible.US The report showed that many of these companies and the PhRMA trade group have spent more than $205 million in recent years fighting efforts to control the cost of prescription drugs.
Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and Sanofi reported billions in rising profits, share buybacks and dividends in 2022 before announcing price increases in January on essential medicines, including expensive cancer treatments.
- Despite seeing a 140% increase in net profit in 2021 and a 42% increase in first nine months of 2022, Pfizer plans to increase the prices of nearly 100 drugs, including 7.9% increases in the cancer drugs Ibrance and Xalkori. That was despite Pfizer spending $2 billion on share buybacks and $6.7 billion on shareholder dividends through the third quarter of 2022.
- AstraZeneca plans to increase the prices of at least two cancer treatment drugs and one asthma treatment after reporting net earnings of $2.39 billion in the first nine months of 2022, more than five times the same period in 2021.
“The Inflation Reduction Act has begun to drive down drug prices, and that has already had pharmaceutical executives looking for ways to continue making outrageous profits at the expense of our sickest citizens,” said Richard Fiesta, CEO of The alliance. “We must continue to address this exploitation of seniors and all consumers, building on the progress we’ve made with the Reducing Inflation Act.”
