SAN FRANCISCO | By Caroline Humer
With a backlash brewing over the price of medicines in the United States, drugmakers are pushing back with a new message: Most people don't pay retail. Top executives from Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N), Merck & Co (MRK.N) and Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) said in interviews with Reuters this week that the media focus on retail, or "list prices," for branded medications is misplaced.
They stressed that the actual prices paid by prescription benefit managers, insurers and other large purchasers are reduced through negotiated discounts.
A couple of dramatic price hikes in 2015 exposed the whole industry to ongoing scrutiny in Congress and on Wall Street. Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of a generic anti-infective drug called Daraprim by 5,000 percent, and the larger Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (VRX.N) raised the price on a heart drug Isuprel by more than 200 percent.