PhRMA also argues that while Americans may pay more for drugs when they first come out, they pay less as drugs get older, since nearly 90% of all medicines prescribed to U.S. patients are now cheap generics.
In Britain, generics account for just over three-quarters of prescriptions and that level is lower in other parts of Europe.
Still, the U.S. is slower to see the arrival of generic competition to some top-selling drugs, which explains some of the differences in pricing for certain medicines on the top-20 list.
Overall, the analysis found that price differentials were slightly smaller for complex antibody-based drugs, which are used to treat conditions like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
Many of the biggest differences were evident for older drugs, reflecting the fact that prices are typically hiked each year in the U.S., said University of Liverpool drug pricing expert Andrew Hill.
“It shows the U.S. drug pricing situation isn’t just a matter of isolated cases like Turing Pharmaceuticals,” he said.
The latest furor over U.S. drug costs was prompted by the decision by unlisted Turing to hike the cost of an old drug against a parasitic infection to $750 a pill from $13.50. It has since promised to roll back the increase.
The same medicine is sold in Britain by GlaxoSmithKline for 43 pence (66 cents).
