Washington, D.C. – The Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation (CPPI) predicts that drug price hikes in 2021 will drive increased prescription importation. Some 929 drugs saw price increases in January 2021. Reports from healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors and announcements by drugmakers including Pfizer Inc, Sanofi SA, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, show plans for drug price hikes by as much as 10.4% in 2021.
“It is unconscionable that BigPharma would hike drug prices amid the pandemic, and it is a move certain to continue driving Americans toward importing their medications in larger numbers,” said Jack Pfeiffer, executive director of the Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation. “These early reports of price hikes are just the beginning of cost increases that Americans can expect in 2021. Americans, wise to the BigPharma racket, are finding the savings they need and deserve at online pharmacies like those in Canada.”
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More Americans are turning online and to personal prescription importation to find affordable medications and to combat rising U.S. drug prices. Safe, affordable drugs are available from certified and licensed online Canadian pharmacies at savings of 50 to 90 percent, compared to even the best coupon prices of GoodRx, Amazon, and other leading U.S. pharmacies. As of 2020, an estimated 2.3 million Americans purchase their drugs from outside of the U.S. according to a Jama Network study.
Research from CPPI and the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP Global) shows that an increasing number of Americans are shopping online for their medications.
- More than one-third of Americans (35%) have now used an online pharmacy to purchase medication, up from 23% in 2013.
- Of those who have bought prescription medication online, 31% did so for the first time in 2020 because of the pandemic and 72% indicate that they plan to do so again.
Just the beginning of price increases for 2021
Year after year, drug companies raise the price of medications. America continues to spend more than any other country. The average costs of prescription drugs are about $1,200 per person per year, says analysis from the Washington Post.
By the end of January of 2020 reported drug price increases included:
- 639 drugs increased by an average of 6%.
- 619 brand drugs increased by an average of 5.2%.
- 20 generic drugs increased by an average of 29.4%.
The price of drugs in America has increased faster than most other goods and services. Since 2014, drug prices have increased by 33%, outpacing price increases for any other commodity or service.
2021 drug price increases exceptionally devastating amid Coronavirus
While millions of Americans are struggling to put food on their tables and live in fear of eviction, drug companies reported record financial gains in 2020. Those financial gains are due, in no small part, to the taxpayer-funded development and purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.
Drug price increases have historically been most dramatic for specialty medications that treat chronic conditions such as diabetes or COPD. Patients with a chronic health condition are widely known to be at higher risk of infection and death from Coronavirus.
Nine in ten Americans are concerned with rising prescription drug costs due to Covid-19 says a recent Gallup study. Fifty-eight percent of respondents to a CPPI short survey taken between April and May 2020, said that their access to prescription medication has been impacted by COVID-19. Seventy-nine percent reported concerns about getting their prescription medication safely and affordably due to the impacts of COVID-19.