American Drug Market Is a Pharma Cash Cow

A recent report considers the prescription drug prices of 20 top-selling drugs—both in the United States and worldwide. The trend of exceedingly high American drug costs continues; the report notes that of the total $158 billion revenue of just 20 drugs, sales in the U.S. made up $101 billion.

“Americans are paying pharmaceutical companies more for the world’s 20 blockbuster drugs than the rest of the world, according to an analysis of company financial filings by Public Citizen. For example, AbbVie raked in $16 billion in US sales for Humira last year, more than 4x the revenue that Humira produced across all other countries combined. Axios explains that the US is the pharmaceutical industry’s gold mine, and the analysis shows how much the industry has at stake as it fights Democrats’ plan to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and let employers piggyback off those lower prices.” Read more here.

(Source: Bob Herman, Axios, 9/30/21)