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A prescription drug is a medication that may only be obtained with a medical professional’s recommendation and authorization. In some US states, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, and other medical professionals are permitted to write prescriptions in addition to doctors. Prescription drugs are generally divided into two categories: brand-name drugs and generic drugs.
In the United States, drug companies (also called pharmaceutical companies) set prescription drug prices, which are largely unregulated by the US federal government. Some drug companies will be familiar due to their names being attached to COVID-19 vaccines or other common products: Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, for example. Others may not be household names but command large portions of the market nonetheless: Swiss companies Roche and Novartis, to name two.
While there is speculation about how drug companies price drugs–including competing drugs, medical uniqueness, and the overall market–drug companies are not required to reveal how or why a drug is priced as it is, why or when a drug price may be raised, or why drug costs sometimes exceed research and development (R&D) expenses for the drug.
The cost to the patient is determined by three agents. First, the drug company, which sets a price for a drug it has developed or purchased from another company. Second, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), who negotiate rebates and savings on behalf of health insurance companies, Medicare Part D drug plans, large employers, and other groups. (These agreements, however, are generally not publicly disclosed so actual cost savings to patients are unknown.) And third, health insurance companies, which determine which drugs will be approved for their customers’ use, how much the insurance company will pay for the drug, and how much the patient will pay. The patient may not know their out-of-pocket cost for a drug until standing in line at the pharmacy, and, due to disparate insurance coverage, one patient may pay more than another for the same drug.
According to the Rand Corporation, prescription drug prices in the United States were 2.56 times higher on average than prices in 32 other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, with brand-name drugs coming in at 3.44 times higher. While generic drugs in the US cost slightly lower than the global average, and accounted for 84% of drugs sold, they made up only 12% of spending in the United States. Total drug spending for the countries included in the study?? was estimated to be $795 billion, with the US accounting for 58% of sales and 24% of volume.
PRO
- High drug costs can force people to choose between life-saving drugs and other essentials.
- Too many companies with too many private interests are involved in drug pricing, resulting in high prices and limited access to important drugs due to corporate greed.
- Without regulation, drug costs are inconsistent and often hidden, leaving doctors struggling to provide appropriate care to their patients.
CON
- Revenue from prescription drug sales fund research and development of new drugs.
- Expanded access to affordable insurance that better serves customers by covering a larger percentage of prescription drug costs would more effectively lower drug costs for patients.
- The US federal government is already over-involved in healthcare and should leave prescription drugs to the free market.
- DTC prescription drug ads encourage o
This article was published on June 6, 2022, at Britannica’s ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source.