Posted by Michael Wonder on 13 Mar 2019
Rx drug costs: list prices versus net prices and the importance of staying within the data
13 March 2019 - The authors of a recent Health Affairs article asked a meaningful question: Are new drugs or existing drugs the cause of rising drug costs?
They found that rising prices of existing drugs were the primary driver. However, they used flawed data, likely leading to flawed results, which were repeated in news articles and on social media, further compounding the problem.
In this post, I examine the flaws in the article, “The Contribution Of New Product Entry Versus Existing Product Inflation In The Rising Costs Of Drugs,” by Inmaculada Hernandez and coauthors. I also raise the broader issue presented by the article: researchers must be careful not to extend their analysis or the implications they draw from it beyond the limits of their data.
