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Drugmakers Boost Prices Up to 909%, Defying Political Pressure

Drugmakers Boost Prices Up to 909%, Defying Political Pressure

(Bloomberg) -- Bipartisan efforts to lower drug prices in Washington have not prevented drugmakers from going about their business and raising drug prices, according to Wells Fargo & Co.

In fact, analysts at the firm found that pharmaceutical companies are getting aggressive in their price hikes again. Wells Fargo’s analysis of Wolters Kluwer PriceRx data found that companies have raised medicine costs by 27% on average last month, with a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd hiking the price for a generic anti-diuretic by 909%. Closely held Epic Pharma LLC came second on the list of top increases, jacking up prices on two versions of its drug by 399%. Merck & Co., Fresenius SE, Novartis AG’s Sandoz, and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. were also on the list.

Wells Fargo found there were more price increases in June overall compared with the previous month. Drug companies have raised the cost of 106 medicines compared to 101 in May, analyst David Maris said in a note.

“To us it appears now that the criticism from politicians and the President has quieted down, companies are more aggressively and broadly pursuing drug price increases again,” he said. “We are not so confident that the lull in criticism will continue and could foresee more negative headlines in the coming months.”

Maris notes that wholesaler acquisition cost prices do not reflect rebates or discounts.

--With assistance from Michelle Fay Cortez.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tatiana Darie in New York at tdarie1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Jeremy R. Cooke

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