Doctors left furious after learning how much life-saving American drugs cost in other countries

Drug prices in the US are nearly five times higher than in comparable developed countries, according to a new study.

Researchers looked at 10 drugs that had just been negotiated by U.S. government officials to lower costs for older Americans with arthritis, psoriasis, leukemia, heart failure and diabetes.

Apart from insulin, all drugs studied remained more expensive in the US than in Britain, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Canada and France.

For example, Jardiance, a diabetes drug made by Germany-based company Boehringer Ingelheim, cost $197 per month in the US, which is 4.8 times higher than the cost in Australia.

These findings come after the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act gave Medicare — the government’s health program for seniors — the power to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. They officially started that program earlier this year with the ten drugs analyzed in the new study.

Dr. Jared Ross, president of Emergency Medical Services, Education & Consulting, told DailyMail.com that the findings showed the move was largely “symbolic.”

Dr. Ross said: ‘I think everyone knew that this wouldn’t have any major impact, but this was so that we could show from both the political side and the pharmaceutical side that they were trying to change this, or at least the outward appearance make you change it.’

Of the ten recipes studied, at least three are manufactured by American companies, but they are not cheaper for American consumers.

This includes Xarelto, which is manufactured by Johnson and Johnson to treat type 2 diabetes; Eliquis, manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer for the treatment of atrial fibrillation; and Enbrel, which is manufactured by Amgen for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican politician recently appointed by newly elected President Donald Trump as co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency, recently blamed the problem of excessive drug prices in the US on the bureaucracy at the FDA.

He said the organization is “creating unnecessary barriers” and requiring more testing of drugs from other countries, which “deters patients from accessing promising therapies” and increases costs.

Dr. Ross agreed that the time it takes to bring a drug to market can add to its cost, but argued the issue is more complex than that.

Other countries also have stricter patent rules, price controls and a greater willingness to negotiate drug prices. These factors keep drug prices lower, he said.

In the US, without these controls, companies can set the price of their drugs with less oversight, and consumers have to pay the listed price when there is only one treatment option on the market.

Dr. Ross added, “What we don’t have is we don’t have a free market, and the (drug) negotiations were an attempt to give the appearance of a free market.”

All of this together creates a significant disparity in U.S. health care compared to other countries.

Even after adjusting for inflation, prescription drug spending in the country has increased steadily since the 1960s. Medical debt is the leading reason for bankruptcies in the country.

Researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science led the study, although contributions from American schools also took part.

Their results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

They collected data on U.S. drug prices from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other countries using a database from a company called IQVIA, which tracks data from the life sciences industry.

The investigation focused on newly negotiated drug prices created by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The IRA added a provision asking Medicare to set upper limits on the price of common prescription drugs.

After setting a cap, they can also negotiate drug prices based on how they compare to alternatives.

CMS officials started with ten drugs and published their findings in August 2024.

These include Stelara, Enbrel, Entresto, Imbruvica, Eliquis, Xarelto, Jardiance, Januvia, Farxiga and NovoLog/Fiasp.

The renegotiations caused the maximum price to drop by as much as 42 percent.

Stelara, an injection that treats Crohn’s disease, psoriasis and ulcerative colitis, costs about $4,695 per 30 days of treatment in the US.

In Australia, costs are approximately 250 percent lower, coming to $1341 for 30-day treatments. In Britain it costs $1291.

Enbrel, an injection that treats rheumatoid arthritis, costs about $2,355 per 30-day treatment. For comparison, it costs about $754 in Australia and $851 in Britain.

Jardianace, a blood sugar-lowering drug that treats type 2 diabetes, costs about $197 per 30-day treatment.

That’s a 488 percent increase from Australia, where the drug costs $33, and a 316 percent increase from Britain, where the drug costs $50.93.

The only drug whose price was close to or lower than in other countries was NovoLog/Fiasp, an insulin drug used to manage diabetes. Last year, the drug’s price was capped after widespread complaints of price gouging.

In the US, the one-month supply of the drug is $8.96, compared to $5.44 in Australia, $7.38 in Britain and $11.09 in Germany.

While the study authors noted that drug prices in the U.S. were still consistently higher, they said, “The gap between U.S. and non-U.S. prices narrowed for all drugs.”

Still, Dr. Eric Arzubi, the ZEO of Frontier Psychiatry, told DM.com that the changes made in the new CMS negotiations are not significant enough.

He said: ‘Although the study shows an average decline in US drug prices, they remain up to four times higher compared to other industrialized countries. I’m not sure we can call that a victory.’

To bring down drug prices in the U.S., he said, the government should be more willing to negotiate with companies to bring down prices — for everything from drugs to dialysis care.

Dr. Ross said, “Unfortunately, for better or for worse, we have a health care system and a health care mentality in the U.S. where no price is too expensive for care.”

In addition, stricter enforcement of patent laws could bring more drugs to market, driving down the price of original formulations and making prescriptions more affordable overall.

Finally, he said, other countries are using price controls, which are largely absent in the US.