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US pricing watchdog flags AbbVie, Roche, other top drugmakers for overcharging

A two-year analysis from U.S. drug pricing watchdog the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review determined that costs for many of the best-selling drugs in the country had been raised without any new evidence supporting better efficacy.

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ICER analyzed nine of the drugs with the most substantial price increases in 2017 and 2018 and reported that net prices on seven of the drugs added up to an additional $5.1 billion in costs for U.S. insurers and patients.

The organization said the medications with the highest impact on drug spending in the U.S. without evidence of improved performance were AbbVie Inc.'s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, Roche Holding AG's cancer medication Rituxan, Pfizer Inc.'s pain drug Lyrica, Gilead Sciences Inc.'s HIV treatment Truvada, Amgen Inc.'s bone marrow stimulant Neulasta, Eli Lilly and Co.'s erectile dysfunction drug Cialis and Biogen Inc.'s multiple sclerosis treatment Tecfidera.

The two drugs that did show new clinical evidence were Celgene Corp.'s cancer drug Revlimid and Gilead Sciences' HIV regimen Genvoya. ICER said, however, that the new evidence does not necessarily justify the price increases for these drugs.

"The norm in the U.S. has been for most pharmaceutical manufacturers to increase prices year after year — even accounting for the discounts they give insurers, and even for drugs that already sit at the top of the chart of spending for drugs in the U.S.," ICER Chief Medical Officer David Rind said in an Oct. 8 release. "If new evidence emerges that shows a treatment may be more beneficial than what was previously understood, perhaps that new evidence could warrant some level of price increase."

Drug pricing continues to be a key issue for the Trump administration and congressional lawmakers as 2020 elections approach.