Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer raised the pricetag for nearly 100 drugs in 2017.
The company spiked the prices of 91 drugs by an average of 20 percent, including some of its best-selling drugs, like the erectile dysfunction pill Viagra, The Financial Times reports. Friday’s findings mark the second time that Pfizer raised the price of its drugs in 2017, a move that is likely to draw flack from consumers, politicians and advocacy groups.
Pfizer’s increases are far beyond the normal inflation rate, which typically hovers around 2 to 4 percent per year.
Democratic senators have been campaigning against big pharmaceutical companies for raising drug prices exorbitantly.
Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have taken up arms against Big Pharma, making the issue of price gouging a topic of national discourse.
Warren slammed Mylan in August 2016 due to the pricing of the EpiPen.
“These changes will help some customers who are struggling to afford EpiPens. Your discount programs, however, represent a well-defined industry tactic to keep costs high through a complex shell game,” Warren wrote in a letter to Bresch.
Sanders used the example of albuterol sulfate tablets to illustrate what is wrong with the pharmaceutical industry in a 2014 Senate investigation into why generic drug prices are skyrocketing.
“It is unacceptable that Americans pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Generic drugs were meant to help make medications affordable for the millions of Americans who rely on prescriptions to manage their health needs. We’ve got to get to the bottom of these enormous price increases,” Sanders said.
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