Prescription Drug Pricing : Cost and Control Concerns

The growing cost of brand-name prescription drugs can be a burden on patients, payers and providers of health care, particularly when price increases are large and occur suddenly. Controlling rising prescription drug prices helps to ensure that patients can afford medically necessary and sometimes life-saving medication, and to moderate costs for hospitals and third-party payers such as insurance plans and state and federal governments. This book examines prescription drug pricing costs and control concerns with a focus on extraordinary price increases for brand-name prescription drugs, as well as the characteristics and factors that contributed to this price increase.