The United States largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Pfizer today confirmed that the company has increased the prices of more than 100 types of drugs in its inventory starting early this year. The data was first revealed by a global information services company Wolters Kluwer which revealed some of the price has been increased to 20 percent.
The new information revealed is shocking considering that the company is currently planning to merge with Ireland-based Allergen Plc. The merger is considered as an effort to reduce its tax bill ergo its overhead cost should be reduced allowing for a cheaper drugs to be manufactured.
According to Reuters, among the drugs that have been increased in price includes Lyrica pain drug which price increases as much as 9.4 percent, Viagra increases by 12.9 percent, and Ibrance increases by 5 percent. Ibrance, is the company's latest breast cancer drug released last year which is priced at $9,850 per month.
The price set for Ibrance was 20 percent higher compared to its original price. However, after a series of discussion with the insurers, the drug maker agrees to slash its price. The high price set by the company surprised everyone and according to the New York Times, the high price is baseless as it does not consider the cost of manufacturing and research alone but purely for profit taking purpose.
Besides price hike, the report publishes by Wolters Kluwer also shows that there is no price reduction done by the company for this year as reported by Seeking Alpha.
Drug price hikes have been a steady trend among drugmakers lately as they are reported to purposely push the price to a high price but still keeping it low to avoid hospitals from using its competitor's drug. Although Pfizer's spokesperson could not be contacted immediately, drugmakers have been known to defend their action by noting that drug price only accounts for 10 percent of nationwide spending.
The price hikes issue has been debated by not only the public but also politician and lots of ways has been proposed to ensure the trend will stop. Among the suggestion given by experts is for government intervention in setting the price at a lower price.
Pfizer, with total revenue of $45.7 billion in 2014 is nearing a deal to merge with botox drugmaker, Allergen. The company will move its headquarters to Ireland when the deal has been closed and is expected to benefit in a huge tax reduction from the move.
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