In this July 12, 2012, photo, Centrum multivitamins are shown on the packaging line at the Pfizer plant in Montreal. Drugmaker Pfizer’s third-quarter profit falls 14 percent as sales plunge amid increased generic competition to cholesterol fighter Lipitor, long the world's top-selling drug. Its sales dove 71 percent to $749 million. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
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In this July 12, 2012, photo, Centrum multivitamins are shown on the packaging line at the Pfizer plant in Montreal. Drugmaker Pfizer’s third-quarter profit falls 14 percent as sales plunge amid increased generic competition to cholesterol fighter Lipitor, long the world's top-selling drug. Its sales dove 71 percent to $749 million. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)
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OxyContin pills are arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines. As in previous recent years, opioid drugs — which include OxyContin and Vicodin — were the biggest problem, contributing to 3 out of 4 medication overdose deaths. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
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FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2012 file photo, pedestrians walk past a CVS store in Chicago. CVS Caremark Corp. is reporting their fourth quarter 2012 earnings on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
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In this Nov. 21, 2012, photo, Melanie Norwood, left, sits next to her attorney, Mark Chalos, as she talks about her mother, Marjorie Norwood in Nashville, Tenn. Marjorie Norwood, 59, became sick with fungal meningitis after getting steroid shots produced by the New England Compounding Center. Federal lawsuits in five states have been filed against the New England Compounding Center by patients who received shots of steroid medication produced by the pharmacy and more are being filed in state courts every day. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
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This undated family photo shows meningitis victim Marjorie Norwood in Nashville, Tenn. Norwood became sick with fungal meningitis after getting steroid shots produced by the New England Compounding Center. Federal lawsuits in five states have been filed against the New England Compounding Center by patients who received shots of steroid medication produced by the pharmacy and more are being filed in state courts every day. (AP Photo/Family Photo)
Report: Some 2012 prescription spending slipped
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Prescription drug spending growth last year mirrored 2011's increase, but U.S. spending on traditional medicines for problems like high cholesterol fell for the first time in more than 20 years, according
Express Scripts Holding Co.'s annual drug trend report.
Total spending grew 2.7 percent last year, as an 18.4 percent increase in specialty medication spending countered a 1.5 percent decrease for those traditional drugs. Specialty drugs often require frequent dosing adjustments, more intensive clinical monitoring and specialized handling or administration. They can include treatments for multiple sclerosis and cancer.
They also include hepatitis C drugs, where two new treatments helped spending in that therapy class climb nearly 34 percent, said Express Scripts, the nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager.
An increase in cheaper generic equivalents to drugs like the cholesterol fighter Lipitor contributed to the spending decrease for traditional treatments. Generics have chipped away at revenue for drugstores and pharmacy benefits managers for several quarters since U.S. patents protecting the drugs expired.
Express Scripts, based in St. Louis, said the country spent more on diabetes drugs than any other therapy class for the second year in a row. Spending on attention disorder treatments also increased more than 14 percent.
Express Scripts compiled its annual drug trend report using data culled from its business, which manages 1.4 billion prescriptions each year.
Pharmacy benefits managers, or PBMs, run prescription drug plans for employers, insurers and other customers. They process mail-order prescriptions and handle bills for prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies.
Shares of Express Scripts rose 6 cents to $57.94 Tuesday morning trading as the broader continued its rally.
Tags:
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