Are pharmaceutical prices in the US three to four times higher than in other developed countries?
By Seth Smalley
Copy link
Copy featured image
YES
Most other countries regulate drug prices; the U.S. doesn't. The U.S. spends the most money per capita on pharmaceuticals. According to a 2019 congressional study, in most other developed countries drug prices average around 24% to 30% of the U.S. level. U.S. sales ($376 billion in 2017) account for 33% of global pharmaceutical revenues.
The study reported that American prescription prices on average are four times those in Switzerland, which has greater per-capital wealth than the U.S. GlaxoSmithKline plc sells Advair Diskus, a pulmonary-disease drug, for about 13 times more in the U.S. than the average international price. Merck & Co. sells Dulera, which treats asthma, for an average of 50 times more in America than elsewhere.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
