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10 big brands keep pumping out big bucks, with a little help from price hikes May 7, 2014 | By Tracy Staton in Fierce Pharma Marketing

Excerpt:
"Drugmakers raise U.S. prices to make more money. This isn't a surprise to anyone. It's a basic business strategy, and the U.S. market is among the few where pharma companies still have considerable pricing power. But thanks to a steady flow of expensive new cancer therapies--and a public brouhaha over the cost of next-gen treatments for hepatitis C--drug prices are on center stage.

Prominent cancer doctors have balked at adopting a new Sanofi ($SNY) drug, Zaltrap, because they decided its benefits weren't worth the cost. Pharmacy benefits managers, notably Express Scripts, have nixed drugs from their formularies in favor of competing--and less expensive--options. And Gilead Sciences' ($GILD) pricing poster child Sovaldi has private payers and government programs so spooked, they're considering limiting its use to the sickest patients, at least until they can use soon-to-be-approved rivals to negotiate better pricing.

Though the spotlight has picked out these few prominent cases, price hikes are happening all over. Drugmakers hike prices to offset patent losses on other meds. To milk an aging product for all it's worth before its patent expires. Or simply because they can: Last year, as U.S. drug spending dropped a couple of percentage points, Novo Nordisk ($NVO) and Sanofi--among others--raised prices on some products, thinking the market could bear it.

But which price tags are changing most? Bloomberg enlisted DRX, a drug-data firm, to find out; you can read the news service's coverage here. We thought we'd look into the products at the top of the list, to see how and why their prices are leaping. Some of the biggest hikes are for products you don't hear much about--specialty meds, such as Jazz Pharmaceuticals' ($JAZZ) narcolepsy treatment Xyrem. Others are mass-market, primary care products, such as Daiichi Sankyo's blood pressure pill Benicar. Any pricing examples you find most egregious--or most justified? Let us know. --Tracy Staton (email | Twitter) | Carly Helfand (email | Twitter) | Emily Wasserman (email | Twitter)

1. Xyrem (narcolepsy symptoms) -- Jazz Pharmaceuticals
2. Humulin (diabetes) -- Eli Lilly
3. Premarin (menopause symptoms) -- Pfizer
4. EpiPen (anaphylaxis) -- Mylan
5. Lunesta (sleep disorders) -- Sunovion
6. Benicar (high blood pressure) -- Daiichi Sankyo
7. Lantus (diabetes) -- Sanofi
8. Viagra (erectile dysfunction) -- Pfizer
9. Gleevec (leukemia) -- Novartis
10. Copaxone (MS) -- Teva

Article at:
http://www.fiercepharmamarketing.com/story/10-big-brands-keep-pumping-out-big-bucks-little-help-price-hikes/2014-05-07#ixzz31i7uySIA