AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer among companies raising their prices by a median of 4.6 percent<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — With the new year comes another round of prescription drug price hikes, CBS News<\/em> reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n The data come from 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit company that aims to improve access to drug pricing information. AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and other major pharmaceutical companies are raising their prices by a median of 4.6 percent, the nonprofit said. In all, more than 500 drugs will cost more this year.<\/p>\n GlaxoSmithKline raised the price on 34 of its drug brands on Jan. 1, company spokesperson Lyndsay Meyer told CBS News<\/em>. “Compared to last year, we’ve taken fewer list price increases and we didn’t raise the list price of 18 products across our portfolio,” Meyer noted.<\/p>\n Pfizer told CBS News<\/em> that its prices rose about 1 percent. “This modest increase is necessary to support investments that allow us to continue to discover new medicines and deliver those breakthroughs to the patients who need them,” a company spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n Bristol Myers Squibb “responsibly balances pricing its medicines so high-risk innovation is rewarded while providing access and affordability support for its patients,” the company said in a statement to CBS News<\/em>. The company sells the lung cancer treatment Opdivo, which is expected to rise 2 percent in price, and the arthritis drug Orencia, which is looking at a 5 percent jump, CBS News<\/em> said.<\/p>\n Other drugs expected to see price hikes include Zipsor (by 10 percent), Sabril (by 10 percent), Humira (by 7 percent), Kengreal (by 6 percent), Lyrica (by 5 percent), and Chantix (by 3 percent).<\/p>\n