Drugs: Spending on prescriptions is slowing - Health Key

mericans consume a lot of prescription drugs. And they seem especially fond of those to lower their cholesterol, relieve their heartburn, cheer them up and take away pain. Overall, however, their spending on such drugs is slowing.

A new report from consulting firm IMS Health offers a quick, but thorough, look at Americans' consumption of, and spending on, prescription drugs. In 2010, the report says, we spent more than $307 billion on medication. That’s up over 2009, but only by 2.3%.

The report’s introduction frames the trend nicely: “A number of factors contributed to this comparatively and historically low growth, including fewer patient visits to doctors’ offices, patent expirations for branded products, expanded usage of existing generic products and less spending on new products.”

Now, drum roll, please...Here are the top five classes of drugs prescribed in America:

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Drug Shortages Distress Hospitals - WSJ.com

A shortage of injectable generic drugs for cancer and other serious diseases is putting pressure on hospitals, which are sometimes having to scramble to locate the medicines or search for alternative treatments.

The supply of these drugs has tightened in recent years as the generic-drug industry has consolidated, with many of the drugs now made by just one or two companies. In many cases patents have long expired and the original brand-name drug is no longer being produced.

Federal regulators have also stepped up enforcement of quality standards, limiting the ability of large manufacturers to ramp up production.

The drugs—typically used in hospitals and outpatient clinics—often require complex manufacturing processes with long lead times. Because factories produce many kinds of medicines, companies say they can't easily make more of one without creating a shortage in another.

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Branded drug prices soar as generic pressure rises | Reuters

Pharmacists in Jordan-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals package generic versions of Ciprofloxacin hydrochloride 750 mg which will be exported to the U.S. and Western markets in Amman February 8, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Ali Jarekji

By Deena Beasley

LOS ANGELES | Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:46am EDT

LOS ANGELES

(Reuters) - U.S. prices for brand-name drugs are rising faster than ever as patents expire on top-selling medicines and the pharmaceutical industry nervously eyes the future of healthcare reform.

Prices for the 15 best-selling drugs rose by much higher rates in 2010 than they did in each of the last five years, according to exclusive data from Thomson Reuters MarketScan, which measured the average cost of a daily dose as shown in medical claims data.

Two thirds of the drugs saw double-digit price hikes, well above inflation of 1.6 percent in 2010 measured by the consumer price index. The analysis indicates drug makers are scrambling to make as much money as possible from blockbuster drugs before their patents expire, while taking advantage of the fact that last year's healthcare reform bill did not cap drug prices.

According to MarketScan, payments for Pfizer Inc's Lipitor rose 11.4 percent last year, compared with 5 percent annually from 2005 to 2010. That meant the cost of a daily dose of the cholesterol drug rose from $3.17 at the end of 2009 to $3.53 at the end of 2010. Lipitor, which will soon lose patent protection, had 2010 global sales of $10.7 billion.

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Drug recalls surge to more than 1,700 in 2009 - Aug. 16, 2010

Recalls of prescription and over the counter drugs are surging, raising questions about the quality of drug manufacturing in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration reported more than 1,742 recalls last year, skyrocketing from 426 in 2008, according to the Gold Sheet, a trade publication on drug quality that analyzes FDA data.

One company, drug repackager Advantage Dose, accounted for more than 1,000 of those recalls. Even excluding Advantage Dose, which has shut down, recalls jumped 50% last year.

"We've seen a trend where the last four years are among the top five for the most number of drug recalls since we began tallying recalls in 1988," said Bowman Cox, managing editor of the Gold Sheet. "That's a meaningful development."

The fast pace of drug recalls seems to be continuing in 2010. Drug recalls totaled 296 from January through June of this year, said Cox. "If we continue at this same rate, we could get 600 or more recalls by the end of the year," he said. "That's still a very high rate of recalls."

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