Drugmakers set to raise prices on 350 medicines
By: Michael Erman
Reuters
NEW YORK - Drugmakres plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medications including blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance and vaccines against COVID, RSV and shingles even as the trump administration pressures them for cuts, according to data provided exclusively by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.
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The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point lat year, [2025] when drugmakers unveiled plans for raises on more than 250 drugs. The median on this year's [2026] price hikes is around 4% - in line wit 2025.
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The increase do not reflect any rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts.
..... Drugmakers also plan to cut the list prices on around nine drugs. That includes a more than 40% cut for Boehringer Ingelheim's diabetes drug Jardiance and three related treatments.
..... Boehringer Inglheim and ELi Lilly, which sell Jardiance together, did not immediately respond to request for comment on the reason for the price cuts. Jardinace is among the 10 drugs for which the U.S. government negotiated a lower price for the Medicare program for people ages 65 and older in 2026. Under those negotiations, Boehringer and Lilly slashed the Jardiance price by two-thirds.
..... U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay in similarly wealthy nations.
..... The increases on 350 medicines come even as Trump has struck deals with 14 drugmakers on the prices of some of their medicines for the government's Medicaid program for low-income Americans and for cash payers. Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and GSK are among those companies and also plan to raise prices on some drugs.
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"These deals are being announced as trans formative when, in fact, they really just nibble aorta the margins in terms of what is really driving high prices for prescription drugs in the U.S.," said Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
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Rome said the companies seem to be maximizing prices while negotiating discounts behind the scenes with health and drug insures and then setting yet another price for direct-to-consumer cash-pay sales.
..... An HHS spokesman declined to comment.
..... Pfizer announced the most list price hikes, on aorudn80 different drugs including cancer drug Ibrance, migraine pill Nurtec, and COVID treatment Paxlovid, as well as some administered in hospitals such as morphine and hydromorphone.
..... Most of Pfizer's inverses are below 10%, except a 15% hike of COVID vaccine Comicality,while some of tis relatively inexpensive hospital drugs saw more than four-fold increases.
..... Pfizer said in a statement it had adjusted the average list price of its innovative medicines and vaccines for 2026 below the overall rate of inflation.
..... More price hikes and cuts can be expected in early January. [2026]
..... 3 Axis is a consulting firm that works with pharmacists groups, health plans and some pharmaceutical industry-related groups on drug pricing and supply chain issues.