Brand Drug Price Growth Outstrips Effect Of Generics

By 2013, increases in brand drug prices began to more than offset the price-lowering effects of generic drugs, according to research by congressional Medicare advisers, but when those advisers discussed ways to control drug spending on Thursday (Jan. 14), they mostly stuck to policies that affect insurers and the poorest beneficiaries, not drug makers. A few commissioners said there are policies within the jurisdiction of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to control drug prices, but it isn’t clear whether commissioners...