# Pfizer raising prices on 41 drugs in 2019 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 20, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828 "2018-11-20T01:31:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/1 "2018-11-20T01:31:06Z")
> **[Pfizer Lifting Prices on 41 Drugs in 2019](https://www.investopedia.com/news/pfizer-lifting-prices-41-drugs-2019/)** > > Without a "blueprint to lower drug prices" from the White House, the pharmaceutical giant will resume business as usual, lifting list prices by about 5%. > [@](#): > > On Friday, Pfizer, one of the largest drug makers in the world, said it will raise list prices on 41 prescription drugs, or about 10% of its drugs. A majority of the price increases will be 5%, though Pfizer will raise three drugs’ list prices by 3% and one by 9%. However I think their profit margins in 2017 were almost 40%. I’m seeing gross revenues of 52 billion, and net profits of 21 billion. I guess 40% profit margins aren’t enough. Their R&D spending by contrast were about $7 billion in 2017. There are easy solutions to high drug prices. Stronger negotiations among public and private providers with medical suppliers. Making it easier to import drugs from overseas and promoting international competition. Making it easier for generic manufacturers to enter the marketplace. patent law reforms. Not only does every other wealthy nation on earth use these tactics, but lots of middle income nations use them too. India and Brazil have much lower drug prices than America. But none of it will be done in America. Neither political party has any interest in taking on the rich and powerful. So I guess private companies posting 40% profit margins, where a lot of their drugs are invented by the public sector will continue to act like this. Being an American is so demoralizing. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/2 "2018-11-20T01:36:59Z")
The drugs aren’t invented in the public sector. Manufacturing a workable drug not only means doing the trials and getting FDA approval, it also means taking responsibility if the drug turns out to be dangerous. The universities don’t get sued when the drug they said was a miracle drug turns out to kill people. The drug companies do. All that being said, I agree though that we need to change the laws when profit margins get too high. Drug margins should be high due to the relative risk, but ever since Wall Street’s big crash I’ve become amenable to the idea that some sectors should not be making so much money and hoovering up all the college talent looking to make big bucks in an industry. 20% margins are more than enough for drugs. And finance margins should be no higher than 5%. That doesn’t mean I favor windfall profits taxes or FORCING profit margins down through blunt measures. But if drug companies are doing 40%, it’s probably time for everyone else to drive a harder bargain, and one way government can make that easier is to make competition easier. When someone can buy an Epipen and jack the price up 900%, something’s not working right in the market. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/3 "2018-11-20T01:55:20Z")
The workers in pharma aren’t making the big bucks. A lot of them use permatemp labor and I’ve seen jobs as administrative assistants that pay more. According to this, public sector firms invented half the drugs that got FDA approval from 1970-2009. > **[Drugs developed by Uncle Sam, PhD, play an outsized role in medicine](https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2011-feb-10-la-heb-drug-development-taxpayers-20110210-story.html)** > > Drugs developed by Uncle Sam, PhD, play an outsized role in medicine > [@](#): > > A group of researchers from Boston University, the NIH and the Norwegian Radium Hospital Research Foundation set out to quantify the contribution of PSRIs toward development of drugs and vaccines that have been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The task required them to spend a great deal of time with the FDA’s Orange Book, which details the patent history of all new drug applications that were ultimately approved. They also scoured news reports and company announcements and surveyed academic technology licensing officers to catch any other drugs they might have missed. > > Altogether, they gave 75 PSRIs credit for inventing 153 new drugs that won FDA approval from 1970 to 2009. The NIH was responsible for 22 of the drugs on that list, and the University of California system came in second with 11. Rounding out the top five PSRIs were Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York with eight, Emory University in Atlanta with seven, and Yale University in New Haven, Conn., with six. Virtually half of the new drugs were developed for treating cancer or infectious disease. > > And these weren’t just run-of-the-mill drugs – they were important ones. For instance, 46% of the drugs developed by PSRIs got priority reviews from the FDA (an indication that they offered a substantial improvement over existing treatments), compared with 20% of the drugs from the private sector. > > In addition, the researchers wrote, “Virtually all the important, innovative vaccines that have been introduced during the past 25 years have been created by PSRIs.” > > Public research institutions were also particularly good at identifying new uses for existing drugs. From 1990 to 2007, the FDA approved only 10 such requests; nine of them originated in PSRIs, according to the study. > > Overall, the team concluded, “PSRIs tend to discover drugs that are expected to have a disproportionately important clinical effect.” The drug daraprim used to ‘only’ be $13, then it got jacked up to $750 a pill. In Brazil and India it costs $0.10 a pill because of generic competition. But in the US, we don’t really allow generic competition (we have high barriers), and we also do not allow the importation of drugs from foreign nations. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/4 "2018-11-20T01:58:44Z")
We actually already make drug patents shorter than most patents. Artistic patents are 50 years after the death of the author and in reality seem to actually be forever given that Disney and some other old companies don’t ever want to let go of their lucrative brands. I’m fine with the temporary patents, but when the patent ends the drug should get really cheap really fast. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, and the reasons seem to be pretty random. As for universities developing drugs, they need to sell them and take responsibility for them if they did all that work. Maybe it would get tuition down if they had drug businesses. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/5 "2018-11-20T02:04:34Z")
My understanding is part of the problem is that drug manufacturers can tie up expired patents in court to prevent generic competition. Also supposedly some manufacturers will just pay generic manufacturers millions of dollars to not produce a generic version, so the branded medicine will be the only one available on the market. > **[How Pharma Companies Game the System to Keep Drugs Expensive](https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-pharma-companies-game-the-system-to-keep-drugs-expensive)** > > Drug development is risky and expensive, thanks to the long testing and approval process. That’s why in 1984, the U.S. Congress struck a bargain with pharmaceutical companies. If they brought a new therapy to market, they won exclusive rights to sell... I don’t know if the ACA did anything about this, but if it did I’d be surprised. Pharma wouldn’t have jumped on the ACA bandwagon if it cut their margins. Again, I feel like fixing this issue is easy (on paper). Just change the laws regarding competition, price transparency (make all pharmacies post prices transparently), generics, importation of pharmaceuticals, etc. The problem is neither party wants to do it because nobody wants to offend the rich. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/6 "2018-11-20T22:36:38Z")
Plus there’s a lot of games playing at the high levels of society. Laws are black and white for the poor and middle class. But the laws on the books and the law as actually applied are all kinds of shades of grey when it involves things powerful people want. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/7 "2018-11-21T02:12:05Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Artistic patents :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/8 "2018-11-21T03:23:02Z")
The politicians get paid for not changing the situation. That’s why it doesn’t change. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/9 "2018-11-21T03:25:30Z")
Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna have a plan. And one that’s similar enough to Trump’s that he’d probably sign it if it could get past the Senate" > **[Bernie Sanders’s new plan to bring down drug prices, briefly explained](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/20/18104560/bernie-sanders-ro-khanna-lower-drug-prices-bill-trump)** > > The plan from Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna would use foreign countries’ drug prices to lower prices in the US. Could that work? ---
**Author:** ![UCBearcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/77aa72/32.png) [@UCBearcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UCBearcats)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/10 "2018-11-21T03:52:51Z")
It’s all about money. No one cares about the middle class. As long as the politicians, CEOs of the insurance and drug companies, and doctors get paid there is no insentive to lower prices. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/11 "2018-11-21T07:39:57Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > We actually already make drug patents shorter than most patents. Artistic patents are 50 years after the death of the author and in reality seem to actually be forever given that Disney and some other old companies don’t ever want to let go of their lucrative brands. There is no such thing as an artistic patent. You’re talking about copyright, which is a different form of intellectual property. A patent has a shorter term, but what it protects is much broader. A patent is on an invention, while a copyright is on a particular expression of an idea. A copyright on a book does not prohibit anyone from publishing a different book with the same set of ideas in it, as long as the words are different. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/12 "2018-11-21T09:50:49Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Also supposedly some manufacturers will just pay generic manufacturers millions of dollars to not produce a generic version, so the branded medicine will be the only one available on the market. That sounds like a textbook antitrust violation. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/13 "2018-11-21T09:53:47Z")
5% doesn’t seem like a truly exorbitant increase. I thought since this was in the Pit, The OP would be about Pfizer pulling a Shkreli. I mean, I agree drug companies suck and all, but this seems almost reasonable on their part (still double inflation, I guess). ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/14 "2018-11-21T13:12:22Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > 5% doesn’t seem like a truly exorbitant increase. I thought since this was in the Pit, The OP would be about Pfizer pulling a Shkreli. I mean, I agree drug companies suck and all, but this seems almost reasonable on their part (still double inflation, I guess). 2.5 times the rate of inflation (I see one cite saying 1.9% for 2018), so definitely more than any increased costs Pfizer has (and I would expect their costs to actually decline relative to inflation, if they move in any direction). Which explains why medical inflation rate is always higher than generic inflation, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/15 "2018-11-21T13:40:17Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > That sounds like a textbook antitrust violation. “Pay for Delay” > **[Pay for Delay](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/competition-enforcement/pay-delay)** > > Pay-for-Delay: When Drug Companies Agree Not to Compete One of the FTC’s top priorities in recent years has been to oppose a costly legal tactic that more and more branded drug manufactur See also, FTC v. Actavis, Inc. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTC\_v.\_Actavis,\_Inc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTC_v._Actavis,_Inc). What I don’t know is how things changed after that ruling. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/16 "2018-11-21T13:41:28Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > There is no such thing as an artistic patent. You’re talking about copyright, which is a different form of intellectual property. A patent has a shorter term, but what it protects is much broader. A patent is on an invention, while a copyright is on a particular expression of an idea. A copyright on a book does not prohibit anyone from publishing a different book with the same set of ideas in it, as long as the words are different. At least he put it at the start of his post, signaling that the rest isn’t worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/17 "2018-11-21T13:45:28Z")
In the past three years twice I dropped a medication because in January it went from ~$25 to \>$500. Happy New Year, your medication is in a higher tier!! I’m not in medicine or anything, I just don’t see how a medication would naturally go UP that list. Fuck all these companies. My doctor confirmed that I’ve taken nine different types of pills in 20 years, averaging over 10 a day. I can’t imagine how much money I’ve spent and there are sooo many places in the world that would cost sooo much less. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/18 "2018-11-21T15:23:16Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > See also, FTC v. Actavis, Inc. > [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTC\_v.\_Actavis,\_Inc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTC_v._Actavis,_Inc). That link didn’t work for me. [This one does.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTC_v._Actavis,_Inc.) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/19 "2018-11-21T15:38:15Z")
The FDA licensing system can also be a problem. A company can’t produce a drug in the U.S. without an FDA license, even if the drug is generic. There have been times when the FDA gives an exclusive license for a drug that’s out of patent, which confers a lot of the same benefit that a patent would. It gives a company a legal monopoly, which allows it to charge more than if there were competition. Sometimes there are good reasons for this, such as with orphaned drugs, but there are also cases where this has happened with commonly-prescribed drugs. It’s what allowed Martin Shkreli to jack up the price of Daraprim, for example. I’d like to see legal or regulatory reform of the FDA to prevent the agency from giving exclusive licenses to out-of-patent drugs in most cases. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828/20 "2018-11-21T16:05:47Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > … I’m seeing gross revenues of 52 billion, and net profits of 21 billion. I guess 40% profit margins aren’t enough. Their R&D spending by contrast were about $7 billion in 2017. And be aware that some of that $7 billion — already just a fraction of profits and marketing — was spent on stipends to physicians for having them help “research” a drug by prescribing it to their patients. > [@Alessan](#): > > That sounds like a textbook antitrust violation. 😕 “Antitrust”? Oh you mean those 20th-century laws. Some of those laws are still on the books I guess, but they’re used for political revenge these days rather than actual consumer protection. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pfizer-raising-prices-on-41-drugs-in-2019/824828.md?page=2)