In 2020, drug pricing pressure from regulators and payers will remain and aggressive negotiation tactics to drive down drug prices will continue, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company’s latest annual outlook report, ‘The State of the Biopharmaceutical Industry – 2020’, reveals that 49% of global industry survey respondents believe that drug pricing and reimbursement constraints will have the greatest negative impact on the pharmaceutical industry in 2020. This is followed by political divide in the US with 14% of respondents, while Brexit, which has had a number of high-profile news stories in the past year, ranked lowest in the study – most likely because Brexit Day is approaching on January 31st and the industry views Brexit as a ‘done deal’.

Bonnie Bain, PhD, Global Head of Pharma at GlobalData, comments: “It is not surprising that drug pricing and reimbursement constraints remain the number one concern for the industry, especially since 2020 kicked off with drug companies in the US again raising prices for several hundred drugs. Compared to last year when the average increase was around 6.3%, the increase in 2020 is expected to be an average of 5%.

“This increase, while lower than 2019, is still high considering that there has been several high-profile initiatives in the US to lower drug costs, including the successful passage of the Fair Accountability and Innovative Research (FAIR) Drug Pricing Act in December 2019. Unfortunately, I suspect that additional efforts to lower prices will likely stall for now due to the looming impeachment trial for President Trump.”