The average price of branded drugs in the US has increased by a whopping 18.3%* per year, according to research by GlobalData. As patients are hit by yet another price hike in 2022—434 branded drugs in the US saw a price increase on 1 January by an average of 5.2%, according to GoodRx—the leading data and analytics company notes that this trend is the complete opposite to what is occurring in other major pharmaceutical markets worldwide.

Floriane Reinaud, MSc, Research and Analysis Director at GlobalData, comments: “While drug list prices have only been increasing in the US, major markets in the rest of the world are seeing declines. Japan, for example, saw drug prices decline by more than 9% while Germany declined by around 7.5%.”

Over the past few years, regulation of drug pricing in the US has been discussed more than ever and debates around price transparency and ‘unsupported’ price increases have gained more traction. However, this has not changed the fact that list prices continue to increase.

Reinaud explains: “With governments cutting prices in many countries, the pharmaceutical industry is trying to compensate for revenue loss by increasing prices in the few countries where they are regulated by market forces – including the US. However, the price increases are experienced at the published list level and at the discount level there are other trends that have been observed where drug prices are not increasing at the same level.

“With this in mind, GlobalData still expects that prices will continue to rise in the US, at least at the list price level, while more competitive bidding dynamics will ensure that discounted net prices experience different trends.”

* Calculated as an average over the last 5 years