Price jumps!! someone finally looking at this

jason demuth, pharmacist

Well, it took election coverage and outrage from presidential coverage.... but someone is finally looking at the huge price hikes for previously inexpensive medications.  This concerns two generic injectable critical care medicines.  Both are low volume, but when you see a price jump from $50/vial to $700/vial - pharmacy budgets take notice.  The problem starts when a lower volume, inexpensive injectable loses manufacturers and leaves someone with a monopoly.  Then they are free to raise prices figuring they have margin to gain, and little volume to lose.  If this was a one-off case maybe it wouldn't matter, but now that more and more meds are being hiked it is lawyers are beginning to notice.  Now that Pfizer is also in the generic drug market, don't expect this trend to stop anytime soon.