Drug Prices Continue to Rise Amid Talks on Capitol Hill To Rein in Costs: GoodRx Monthly Report

Lawmakers in D.C. may be working on bills to curb skyrocketing drug prices, but prices continue to move up. This March, manufacturer Gilead increased list prices for all of their drugs—including Truvada for PrEP—by practically 5%. Unfortunately, the price hikes don’t stop there. List prices for the popular drugs, Belviq, Belviq XR, and Banzel (made by Eisai Inc.), rose as much as 7%, despite having gotten price hikes just last fall.

The GoodRx index also featured the following trends in March:

• Flu season is winding down. Despite a prolonged flu season this year, prescription fills for the popular flu treatment, Tamiflu, finally began dropping off at the end of March.

• Actimmune, used to treat osteoporosis and chronic granulomatous disease, continues to be the most expensive drug in the U.S. at over $52,000 for a 30-day supply.

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Manufacturer Gilead raised drug prices by almost 5%

Manufacturer Gilead increased list prices for all of their medications by 4.9% in March. Among their catalog of drugs are the 10 popular medications listed below, which includes Truvada for PrEP, the once-daily medication used to prevent HIV. A single Truvada pill now costs $59.   

1. Truvada

2. Genvoya

3. Descovy

4. Odefsey

5. Biktarvy

6. Atripla

7. Vemlidy

8. Letairis

9. Stribild

10. Complera

4 other popular drugs saw large price increases

In March, we also saw substantial price increases for these four drugs, three of which just increased in price this past September.

• Belviq and Belviq XR are weight loss medications made by Eisai Inc. Both rose in price by 7.1% in March, from around $9.32 per tablet to $9.99 per tablet. Now, a 30-day supply of either drug can cost over $300, depending on the form and dosage you fill. This follows a recent price increase of 5.6% that occurred in September 2018.

• Banzel, another drug manufactured by Eisai Inc., is a popular brand-only medication used to treat a form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). Both the oral suspension and tablet forms of Banzel increased in price by 4.2% this March. A typical monthly supply of the oral suspension (460 ml) now costs $1600, while a monthly supply of the tablets can cost upwards of $3000, depending on the quantity and strength you fill. Banzel saw a previous price bump of 5.5% in September of last year.

• Zioptan, manufactured by Akorn Inc., is an expensive brand drug used to treat open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. In March, list prices for Zioptan increased by 9.9%, from $194 to $213 for a monthly supply. This finding follows recent news that another glaucoma drug, Rocklatan, was just approved by the FDA.

Prices quoted above are based on each drug’s list price, the price of the drug set by the manufacturer.

Flu season is finally on its way out

According to a GoodRx analysis through April 1, 2019, our prolonged flu season this year is finally clearing out. Typically, flu season peaks and immediately drops off—but that’s not what happened this year. Prescription fills for the popular flu medication, Tamiflu, which serves as a good marker for how strong the flu season is going, peaked in late January and stayed at a fill rate of about 0.7% for the next three months. (A 0.7% fill rate means Tamiflu accounted for 0.7% of all prescriptions filled in the U.S.). The fill rate for Tamiflu dropped off at the end of March and lowered to just under 0.5% by the first week of April.

Trends in data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which uses outpatient flu visits to measure flu activity each season, closely mirrors GoodRx findings.

A possible cause for the prolonged season this year, according to data on prominent flu strains from the CDC, is that in contrast to most years where one flu strain is mainly responsible for that year’s flu, this year, two predominant strains appeared one after the other.

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Despite this year’s flu vaccines promising to be more effective than last year’s, federal health officials said mid-season that not enough people were getting vaccinated. We’ll still need to wait for data on the full season, but according to the CDC, only 46% of children and 45% of adults had received flu vaccines by the end of November 2018 when the season was in full swing. Still, those rates are higher compared to last year’s at the same date (39% and 39%, respectively).

The 10 most popular drugs in March

Here were the 10 most popular drugs in March based on a representative sample of fills at U.S. pharmacies. These reflect overall U.S. prescriptions, not fills using GoodRx.

1. Atorvastatin

2. Lisinopril

3. Levothyroxine

4. Amlodipine

5. Ibuprofen

6. Hydrocodone/acetaminophen

7. Gabapentin

8. Metformin

9. Omeprazole

10. Losartan

The 10 most expensive drugs in March

These were the 10 most expensive outpatient drugs in March based on list prices for a typical one-month prescription. All of these drugs’ list prices are well over $30,000 for a 30-day supply.

1. Actimmune

2. Myalept

3. Daraprim

4. Cinryze

5. Takhzyro

6. Chenodal

7. Juxtapid

8. H.P. Acthar

9. Tegsedi

10. Ravicti

More news from March

• GoodRx reached an exciting milestone of having helped Americans save more than $10 billion in healthcare so far.

• Esketamine, a new ketamine-based antidepressant for difficult-to-treat depression, received FDA approval.

• The FDA approved Zulresso, the first medication ever to target postpartum depression.

• The FDA issued a black box warning for gout drug Uloric due to an increased risk of death, especially from heart-related causes.

• GoodRx published an updated report on the 20 most expensive drugs in the United States.

• Manufacturer, Eli Lilly, announced that they would be introducing a half-priced version of their popular insulin drug, Humalog (insulin lispro).

• The first liquid formulation of levothyroxine, Tirosint-Sol, for hypothyroidism just made its way to pharmacies.

• The FDA approved Rocklatan, once-daily eye drops for open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension.

– – –

This data reflects overall U.S. prescriptions (not fills using GoodRx) and comes from several sources, including pharmacies and insurers, providing a representative sample of nationwide claims.

Co-contributors: Jeroen van Meijgaard, PhD and Clement B. Feyt, MPH

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Written by:

Benita Lee, MPH

Benita Lee, MPH, is director of content and operations at GoodRx and contributes to content strategy and process management across editorial and product initiatives. She is passionate about building collaborative teams and has a deep interest in using research to improve health outcomes in innovative and sustainable ways.

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