Led by new treatments for hepatitis C, there was an “unprecedented $20.2 billion increase in spending” for new medicines in 2014, which was triple the 2013 level, according to a report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
Compared with 2013, spending for new viral hepatitis drugs was up by $11.3 billion in 2014, accounting for more than half of the total increase. Hepatitis C drugs and other specialty medicines – defined as “products that are often injectable, high-cost, biologic … and include treatment for cancer and other serious chronic conditions” – accounted for 81% of the $20.2 billion, the report noted.
The number of patients who sought treatment for hepatitis C jumped from 17,000 in 2013 to 161,000 in 2014, “owing to new treatments with cure rates over 90% and dramatically fewer side effects,” the IMS Institute said.
Spending on new drugs in the traditional sector, such as those for diabetes, was up by $3.9 billion in 2014. The other leading areas of spending increase in the specialty sector – oncology and multiple sclerosis – were up by $1.6 billion and $2.0 billion, respectively, the report said.
The IMS Institute defines new drugs as those launched in the last 2 years. The report includes data from IMS National Sales Perspectives, which “reports 100% coverage of the retail and nonretail channels for national [non-OTC] pharmaceutical sales at actual transaction prices.”
