Posted by Michael Wonder on 05 Feb 2019
Drug makers blame middlemen for high prices but still make huge profits
5 February 2019 - With drug prices climbing far faster than inflation, the cost of prescription medicine has become a big issue in the U.S.
They are the third highest expense in the U.S. health care system and 9.5% of the total cost, according to figures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
There’s heat from politicians and drugmakers don’t like it. In the past, pharmaceutical companies argued that high prices were necessary to fund of research. Now they’re pointing at drug middlemen, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
“As you know, unfortunately, the current pharmaceutical supply chain includes various misaligned incentives that serve to support middlemen while often neglecting patients,” said Merck CEO Ken Frazier in an earnings call on Friday.
