30 May 2017 - Carole Siesser, a retiree in Delray Beach, Florida, started taking a bone-growth drug made by Eli Lilly after she fell and fractured her spine. After two years, the medicine helped to heal her back.

But it cost her $US5600 ($7525) of her own money to help cover the $US26,000 annual price, even though she has Medicare. “They really take advantage of the seniors,” Mrs Siesser, 79, said of pharmaceutical companies. “There’s no competition, so they can charge what they want.”

An analysis of government data by The Wall Street Journal found expensive medicines are increasingly denting the pocketbooks of seniors and other ­beneficiaries in Medicare’s prescription-drug program, known as Part D, despite federal legislation meant to reduce out-of-pocket costs and drugmakers’ discounting.

Read The Australian article