The pharmaceutical industry spends a great deal of money promoting products. Ever wonder who’s paying for all that promotion? Well, it looks like the elderly are. The Families USA Foundation, a national non-profit organization devoted to healthcare consumerism, recently issued a report entitled, "Hard to Swallow. Rising Drug Prices for America’s Seniors." (http://www.familiesusa.org/drugs.htm) The report, issued in November 1999, chronicles the prescription drug price increases for some of the most popularly prescribed drugs used by elders. Data were compiled from the Pennsylvania Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly program, a state-funded outpatient prescription drug program for the elderly, the largest such program in the United States.

Highlights of the report include:

• Pricing for the top 50 prescription drugs rose more than 4 times the rate of inflation during 1998.
• From January 1994 to January 1999, the price of these top 50 drugs rose more than twice the rate of inflation.
• On average, the price of the top 50 prescription drugs rose by 25.2% during the period 1994-1999.
• Topping the list of drugs for the number of price increases were:

• The rate of price increases for the top 50 prescription drugs is increasing.

• Net profit for the manufacturers of these top 50 drugs equaled 20% of revenue in 1998. This is 4.5 times the median net profit for all of the Fortune 500 companies.

Listed below are the top 10 prescription drugs in terms of price increases during the past year:

Just in case you wondered what the industry’s response to this report was, PhRMA spokeswoman Jackie Cottrell responds, "the Families USA press release and data are not representative and shed no new light on the debate. Authoritative IMS Health data established that pharmaceutical drug prices increased only 3.2% last year, in line with medical inflation generally. Increasing expenditures are driven primarily by increased use, including use of newer medicines which can be more expensive."

So if you want to help stem the tide of rising prescription drug prices for your elderly patients, here are some cost-effective alternatives for each:

Readers may also want to refer to a previous Drug Therapy Volume IX, Issue 2, "I can't afford all of these": Strategies for prescription drug prescribing in the elderly.