Prices for prescription pharmaceutical drugs have skyrocketed, disproportionately making them harder for people of color to afford, a new report finds.
The advocacy organization Patients for Affordable Drugs released a report this month showing that pharmaceutical companies increased prices on at least 1,000 prescription drugs so far this year, with about half of the price increases being above the rate of inflation.
One in 3 Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, the report states, and these high drug prices particularly affect Black and Latino patients aged 65 and over — who can be twice as likely to report difficulty in affording their medication, according to the report.
Some drugs affected by the price hike include Enhertu, which is used to treat HER2 positive breast cancer. A recent study found that Black women are more likely than white women to die from HER2 positive tumors. The drug’s manufacturer, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, has raised the price of the drug eight times since its launch in 2019, the latest increase being by 3.49% in July, to more than $2,800 per month. Other drugs, including Revlimid, used to treat multiple myeloma, rose by 7%, to a list price of more than $89,000 per month. Black people in the U.S. are more likely to be diagnosed with the condition and die from it, the report highlights.
The wholesale acquisition cost for Enhertu does “not necessarily reflect the prices paid by consumers, payers or dispensers,” Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca told NBC News. A spokesperson for Revlimid’s manufacturer, Bristol Myers Squibb, said the drug’s price change “reflects the continued clinical benefit Revlimid brings to patients, along with other economic factors.” The company also said that most patients won’t pay the listed price for the medication and that it offers programs to “support commercially insured patients with out-of-pocket costs.”
Pharmaceutical companies typically increase drug prices twice a year, and the U.S. has no mechanism in place to set limits on costs, said Patients for Affordable Drugs’ executive director, Merith Basey. While she calls the lack of affordability a “crisis” that affects most Americans, it disproportionately hurts people of color, she said.
“Black and Latino families are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions and certain cancers … that do require those long-term, very expensive drugs,” Basey said. “A lot of that is also linked to racial disparities in health care that have been well documented due to systemic racism.”
Black people are also more likely to experience conditions such as chronic pain, diabetes and high blood pressure, Basey added. Not having access to medications can create long-term complications for patients missing their required dosage. In fact, some people who “haven’t been able to afford their insulin have ended up dying prematurely,” she said.
Carrol Olinger, of Hope Mills, North Carolina, said it has been incredibly difficult to afford her medication. Olinger, 54, takes at least 30 medications for her chronic conditions, including Type 1 diabetes, high blood pressure and end-stage renal failure, when the kidneys can no longer function on their own. While Olinger has Medicare, she spends up to $300 a month on all her medications.
About two years ago, Olinger went without insurance for almost five months, a period she described as a “nightmare.” She resorted to using less than the recommended dose of insulin and taking her blood pressure pills every other day to ease costs. She said she wiped out her savings and had to borrow money from friends and family to buy her medication.
“I had a headache everyday,” Olinger said. “I just felt drained and tired — and then on top of all of that, I was just, like, emotional for no reason.” She began to question whether she would survive.
Several health care advocacy organizations, including Patients for Affordable Drugs and Health Care for America Now, are pushing for policies that will help lower the financial burden of patients. Both organizations supported the Inflation Reduction Act, a law signed by President Joe Biden that aims to reduce prescription drug prices.
Health Care for America Now’s executive director, Margarida Jorge, said she sees the disproportionate impact of high drug prices on people of color as a “form of systemic racism.” One example she cites is the health care industry’s handling of sickle cell anemia, which 1 in 13 Black babies in the U.S. are born with, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We’ve known about sickle cell anemia for many, many, years,” said Jorge, who is also the campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, “but there hasn’t been much attention to really getting down to the business of trying to cure sickle cell anemia with a drug that is affordable to regular people — and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it’s a Black disease.”
As the presidential election nears, Jorge said many are worried that, under a new president, “some pretty significant changes” could affect Medicare and Medicaid, since both are federal programs.
“It’s always a high priority for us to protect those two programs and do everything that we can to keep expanding coverage,” Jorge said.
While Olinger says she’s benefited from the Biden administration’s capping the cost of insulin to $35, she says the price of other medical items, like diabetic test strips, have increased. Without insurance, her diabetic pen needles, which cost $57, would cost $1,000.
“If I didn’t have insurance, I would be dead or I’d be a thief,” Olinger said.
In the meantime, Basey, of Patients for Affordable Drugs, said her organization continues to push for bills like S.142, which prevents pharmaceutical companies from paying generic brands to delay the release of their drugs on the market. Implementing affordable policies will ensure that Black patients don’t have to choose between “paying for their medication and putting food on the table.”
“I think the key piece here is that these are ordinary people not asking for extraordinary things, just being able to live a life of dignity when they get sick,” Basey said. “They shouldn’t have to be worried about how they’re going to pay for their medication.”
CORRECTION (Sept. 26, 2024, 10:30 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article mischaracterized the $89,000 monthly payment for the multiple myeloma drug Revlimid. It is the list price, not the out-of-pocket payment. It also misstated the type of breast cancer Enhertu treats. It is HER2 positive, not HER2 negative.
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