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Drug makers increased the average wholesale price of 26 brand drugs by 100% or more in a single cost adjustment last year, compared with comparable damage increases for 15 drugs in 2004, according to University of Minnesota researchers, USA Today reports. In the first half of 2008, the average wholesale prices of 17 drugs have increased by at least 100%. According to USA Today, many of the prices that ar "quietly" organism raised are for older products exploited to treat rare merely often serious conditions.
Alan Goldbloom, chief Executive of Children's Hospitals and Clinics in Minnesota, said, "This does drive up the price of health care," adding, "Hospitals ar either feeding the toll or overtaking it along to insurers, so you and I are paid it in increased premiums."
According to apothecary's shop benefits handler Express Scripts, the mean wholesale prices of 1,344 brand name drugs increased by an average of 7.4% last class. Stephen Schondelmeyer, director the PRIME Institute at the University of Minnesota, aforementioned, "There is no simple explanation" for why certain drugs experient the larger increase. "Some companies seem to figure no i is observance so they can generate away with it," Schondelmeyer said. "Drug companies say the price hikes cover the costs of keeping the drugs on the market," USA Today reports.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) last calendar week asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate cases of big price increases. Klobuchar earlier this yr also asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into a fellowship that had increased the average wholesale prices of four drugs by up to 3,436% in 2006 (Appleby, USA Today, 8/8).
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