The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) released a new report on prescription drug price transparency, analyzing data reported by manufacturers, wholesalers, PBMs, and pharmacies from July 2023 through June 2024.
The report reviews the implementation of the Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act and evaluates the state’s progress toward meeting its statutory goals of promoting transparency in pharmaceutical pricing, understanding spending trends, and managing pharmaceutical costs in the state.
According to the report, approximately 943 drugs experienced price increases that required reporting, representing over 11% of statewide prescription drug spending. About 82,000 Minnesotans filled at least one of these prescriptions. These price increases added over $10 million in additional health care spending, averaging $122 in additional drug spending per patient taking one or more of these medications.
The drug classes with the greatest number of new, high-priced drugs were anti-cancer drugs, ADHD/anti-obesity drugs, and anti-inflammatory pain relief medications.
For each of the top three therapeutic classes by pharmacy claims payments, drugs with required price growth reports represented more than $150 million in costs to insurers and more than 20% of all payments in their therapeutic class Among drugs with reported price growth, prices grew an average of 37% over five years – triple the inflation rate for medical goods and nearly double overall inflation for the same period.
New brand-name drugs carried a median price of $5,289, compared with $1,256 for new generics. Brand drugs approved with breakthrough therapy designations had a median price of expensive $13,051.
Health care spending on price growth drugs was dominated by high-priced (and increasing in price) brand name biologics that treat autoimmune conditions such as plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis.
In some therapeutic classes, drugs with required price growth reports made up more than 70% of all spending in their class, highlighting how patients with different conditions may be impacted differently by price increases.
