Drug Prices Skyrocket in California — And Probably Everywhere Else Too

The LA Times reports that drugmakers “fought hard against California’s groundbreaking drug price transparency law, passed in 2017.” I’ll bet they did! So what have we learned?

Pharmaceutical companies raised the “wholesale acquisition cost” of their drugs — the list price for wholesalers without discounts or rebates — by a median of 25.8% from 2017 through the first quarter of 2019, according to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. (The median is the point at which half the prices are higher and half are lower.)

Naturally you’d like to see this in chart form:

As you can see, cheap generics saw the largest increase, more than doubling in cost. Everything else increased 20-30 percent. And if prices went up that much in California, it’s a safe bet they went up that much in your state too.

Why? Well, why not? It’s not as if anyone in power right now is going to stop them.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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