[OT] Drug Makers, Hospitals Raise Prices

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APRIL 15, 2009

Drug Makers, Hospitals Raise Prices

By BARBARA MARTINEZ and AVERY JOHNSON

Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies have been pushing through hefty price

increases aimed at bolstering earnings, even as government and private insurers

are struggling to rein in healthcare costs.

Drug makers increased prices on drugs like Viagra and the leukemia pill Sprycel

by more than 20% in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to data

from Credit Suisse. Meanwhile, one of the largest hospital owners in the

country, HCA Inc., said Tuesday it expects to report higher revenue for the

first quarter even though it had fewer hospitals and its admissions declined. It

also said its income before taxes had nearly doubled.

The prices of a dozen top-selling drugs increased by double digits in the first

quarter from a year earlier. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Sprycel was up 32.7%,

and Pfizer Inc.'s Sutent rose 14.3%. Erectile-dysfunction medicines are also

getting pricier, including Pfizer's Viagra, up 20.7%, and Eli Lilly & Co.'s

Cialis, up 14.2%. Another costlier class of medicines is used to treat

attention-deficit disorder, such as Lilly's Strattera, whose price has increased

15.6% over the past year.

Express Scripts Inc., one of the country's largest pharmacy-benefits managers,

said it saw prices rise more than 10% to 15% between the 2008 first quarter and

this year's first quarter.

Full story

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975436561018959.html

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