The U.S. Pays Triple For Medicine Compared to Britain

The United States pays three times more for the 20 most popular pharmaceutical drugs than Britain, according to a new report from Reuters.

As CNBC explains:

The finding underscores a transatlantic gulf between the price of treatments for a range of diseases and follows demands for lower drug costs in America from industry critics such as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The 20 medicines, which together accounted for 15 percent of global pharmaceuticals spending in 2014, are a major source of profits for companies including AbbVie, AstraZeneca , Merck, Pfizer and Roche.

Researchers from Britain’s University of Liverpool also found U.S. prices were consistently higher than in other European markets. Elsewhere, U.S. prices were six times higher than in Brazil and 16 times higher than the average in the lowest-price country, which was usually India.

In the United States, prices are set by market factors while in other countries governments have a much more involved role in controlling the price of pharmaceutical drugs.

For more on this, read the article from CNBC titled: “EXCLUSIVE-Transatlantic divide: how U.S. pays three times more for drugs.”