'Rebates don't raise prices, drugmakers do,' says PBM

Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX), the USA’s largest pharmacy benefits management firm, has laid the blame for rising prices of medicines in the USA at the door of drugmakers.

At what is potentially a critical time for this issue, with the start of a new year, the growing emergence of an international debate on the affordability of healthcare systems and a new US President giving mixed messages about drug prices, many pharma companies have made pledges and attempted to show transparency over the prices they set.

Some have looked to show that the impression that many people have that companies realize large profits from list price increases is not accurate, arguing that in fact the net price, following rebates, fees and other price concessions provided to payers, give a better reflection of earnings.