• New York Times, Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:53 AM

Duff Wilson reports that AARP is releasing a report today that shows the retail prices for the most popular brand-name drugs increased 41.5% over the past five years. During the same time frame, the consumer price index rose 13.3%. "Brand-name retail prices have been accelerating year-to-year even when inflation has been non-existent in the rest of the economy," says John C. Rother, the AARP's evp for policy and strategy.

Drug industry officials respond that the findings do not reflect that generic drugs now account for about 75% of all prescriptions in the U.S. It points to a government survey of branded and generic drug prices that shows a 3.4% rise in 2009. The AARP reports that branded prescriptions rose 8.3% last year.

"It can easily be shown that branded prices are higher here than they are in other countries, but we have the lowest and the most competitively priced generic drugs in the world, and the generic share is going up rapidly," says John A. Vernon, an assistant professor of health policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who has consulted for the drug industry. "Just focusing on brands, I think, is unfair."

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