The parade of drug price hikes goes on.
The drug maker Gilead Sciences on Friday increased the list prices of six of its drugs. The prices of the antibiotic Cayston, the chest pain drug Ranexa, and the blood cancer drug Zydelig each went up by 10 percent.
Gilead raised the price of its hypertension drug Letairis and of its HIV regimens Complera and Stribild by 7 percent each. The HIV treatment hikes come on top of increases in the prices of both of those drugs just six months ago, by 7 and 5 percent, respectively.
About the Author Reprints
They need to shorten patents on these things dramatically, maybe find a system where the pens are short on maintenance drugs and longer on cures. I don’t buy the line that they need to make unlimited money to be motivated to find new drugs, any more then a CEO won’t work as hard for 200 million as he would for 300 million.
Due to the lack of choice brought about by the need for life saving medications, patent protections, and oligopolies, we need the government to negotiate prices with drug companies and to impose price controls on many costly drugs. Europe, Canada and many other countries control prices. Drug companies are harming the economy by overcharging people in the United States. They set drug prices so high on some infectious diseases that the diseases are not eliminated, but only fester. This further increases excessive profits.