Retail prices for brand-name drugs went up 8.3 percent last year, says an AARP study of the 217 products most used by older Americans.
That’s the largest increase in years and outpaced the 2.7 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index in 2009.
Drug industry officials were quick to criticize the study, though, because about 75 percent of people use generic drugs. Overall drug prices rose 3.4 percent in 2009, according to a survey conducted by the government for the official Consumer Price Index.
However, the AARP study still shows that people who rely on name brands have been subject to steep inflation. And the price of generics is meaningless to someone who needs a name drug for which there’s no generic equivalent yet.
Over the last five years, according to the AARP report released Wednesday, the retail prices for the most popular brand-name drugs rose 41.5 percent, versus the Consumer Price Index’s overall increase of 13.3 percent.