How Pharma Companies Game the System to Keep Drugs Expensive

Drug development is risky and expensive, thanks to the long testing and approval process. That’s why in 1984, the U.S. Congress struck a bargain with pharmaceutical companies. If they

I help the University of Utah hospital system manage its drug budgets and medication use policies, and in 2015 I got sticker shock. Our annual inpatient pharmacy cost for a single drug skyrocketed from $300,000 to $1.9 million. That’s because the drug maker Valeant suddenly increased the price of isoproterenol from $440 to roughly $2,700 a dose.