US retail drug prices jumped 8% in 2009, despite lower inflation, says AARP study

Retail prices for some of the most widely used brand-name prescription drugs in the USA shot up more than 8% in 2009, even as inflation plummeted to a record low, according to a new analysis of retail drug price trends released yesterday by the seniors lobby group AARP.

The AARP Rx Price Watch Report also looked at retail drug prices over the past five years and found some huge increases for popular drugs including the prostate drug Flomax (tamsulosin) from Boehringer Ingelheim, which nearly doubled in price; GlaxoSmithKline's Advair (fluticasone and salmeterol) and Eisai/Pfizer's Aricept (donezepil), saw price hikes of 40%. During the same period, the consumer price index rose 13.3%. The findings show that the cost of prescription drugs - many widely used by those on Medicare - far outstripped the price increases for other consumer goods and services.

Stephen Schondelmeyer, the co-author of the report and professor of pharmaceutical economics at the University of Minnesota, says the results "confirm yet again that drug manufacturers are raising prices far beyond what normal inflation is."