In recent months, Valeant and Turing Pharmaceuticals have been in the news for jacking up the prices of drugs. But it turns out these companies weren’t the only ones.
In a survey of some 3,000 brand-name prescription drugs, 60 drugs had their prices more than double since December 2014. Prices more than quadrupled for 20 drugs, according to Bloomberg.
The survey — conducted by DRX, a health-care pricing tech firm– comes days before a Thursday House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on drug price increases. According to House documents, prices for the top-selling 30 prescription drugs increased by 76% between 2010 and 2014.
Soon after the new year, drug-makers including Pfizer (PFE), Allergan (AGN) and Amgen (AMGN) raised the prices for dozens of drugs by around 10%, according to The Wall Street Journal. Drugs including Viagra and pain medication Lyrica saw increases of 12.9% and 9.4%, respectively.
Martin Shkreli, Turing’s former CEO, became the poster child for drug price gouging when he raised the price of Daraprim by 5000%. Shkreli, who faces fraud charges in another case, was subpoenaed to testify before Congress but he has said he plans to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination. In an interview with Fox Business News Tuesday morning, Shkreli said, “I would love to talk to Congress. I would berate them. I would insult them.”
