26 September 2018 - Federal lawmakers have been griping about drug pricing for years, led most recently by President Donald Trump, who famously declared even before he was elected that the industry is “getting away with murder.” A new study could very well fuel those complaints.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School scoured the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s drug-shortage database and compared the results to pricing data. They determined that prices increased twice as fast as expected for drugs that were in short supply in 2016. 

Price increases that are imposed during shortages, coupled with higher costs associated with drugs that are prescribed as substitutes, cost the healthcare system $230 million each year, the researchers estimated. The study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

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