Sanofi Says Average Net Price of Its Drugs Fell Last Year
June 01 2018 - 3:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
French drug company Sanofi SA says the average price of its
medicines fell 8.4% in the U.S. last year after accounting for
rebates, the latest example of pharmaceutical pricing
pressures.
Several major drug companies have now said the net prices of
their medicines -- that is, the price of the drugs after discounts
and rebates -- fell in aggregate in 2017. Johnson & Johnson and
Merck & Co. have said the sums paid for their drugs had dropped
last year, too.
Meantime, Eli Lilly & Co. said the average net prices paid
for its medicines rose 6% last year after discounts and rebates,
which the company said had increased to 51% of the list price.
Such disclosures of the aggregate pricing data are aimed at
deflecting criticism of drug prices, showing that the companies
aren't price gouging or responsible for the rising co-pays and
other out-of-pocket costs many patients are coping with.
Overall, the list prices of many drug continue to rise. Public
attention to the high cost of drugs has prompted pharmaceutical
companies like Allergan PLC to pledge to limit their annual
list-price increases to less than 10%. Likewise, Sanofi had vowed
to keep annual list-price increases in the U.S. at or below the
federal government's projections of yearly health-care spending
growth.
The company says, in a pricing report posted to its website last
month, it had tweaked the pledge, promising to aim to limit
increases to that estimated inflation rate and explaining the
rationale for any increases above it.
Sanofi has faced criticism from health insurers over the price
increases for some of its products like Lantus insulin, though much
of the increases went to such middlemen as drug-benefit
managers.
The Paris-based company was also criticized for originally
listing Praluent, a new kind of cholesterol drug sold with
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., at $14,600 a year. Earlier this
year, the companies said they would offer discounts bringing the
annual price down to as low as $4,500.
In 2017, Sanofi says it raised the average list prices of its
medicines by 1.6%. The year before, Sanofi upped the list prices of
its drugs by 4% but net prices fell 2.1%.
Sanofi's net-price decline last year reflected the company's
efforts to rebate its medicines enough so health plans would be
willing to place the drugs on a lower formulary tier, which meant
patients would have lower co-pays, a company spokeswoman said
Friday.
"But despite this we know many patients still struggle to afford
their medicines and we are committed to doing our part to make our
medicines affordable and accessible," the spokeswoman added.
Last year, Sanofi reported EUR35 billion in total net sales, up
5.6% from a year earlier.
Write to Jonathan D. Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 01, 2018 15:11 ET (19:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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