Western countries, as well as poor ones, are demanding transparency in the cost of drugs
THESE DAYS it is hard to find a government that is not struggling with the high price of medicines. In England, the government is fighting Vertex, a drug company, over the cost of a drug for cystic fibrosis, Orkambi. In America, diabetics have died because of the high cost of insulin. In the Netherlands, the government for a time stopped buying the immuno-oncology drug, Keytruda, because it was too expensive—even though it had helped to develop it.
Pharmaceutical companies currently publish only list prices. These are large, somewhat fictional numbers that are subject to being bargained down. Just how big a discount governments, insurers and other middlemen can secure is confidential. Many have concluded that all the secrecy is putting those who pay for the drugs at a disadvantage. Els Torreele of Médecins Sans Frontières, an NGO, says that different buyers—even those in the same country—can be charged widely differing prices.
But the degree to which poor countries get favourable treatment is usually unknown, except for some high-profile cases: vaccines, perhaps, and antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV infections. The WHO estimates that 100m people fall into poverty annually owing to the prices they pay for medicines. Moreover, there is evidence that the prices charged for some drugs are, indeed, unreasonably high.
The pharma industry generates large profits. In America, 12 of the country’s most profitable drug companies reported more than $29bn in profits in the first quarter of this year, according to Axios, a news website.
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