Boston pays 158 times higher prices for brand name drugs than international benchmark

Consumers in the U.S. generally pay more for prescription drugs than those in other countries. But prices vary from city to city, with Boston paying significantly more than the international benchmark pricing used by the World Health Organization, according to a report from STAT.

In Boston, the median cost of brand name drugs was 158 times higher than the international benchmark, and the cost of generic drugs was 38 times higher, according to analysis led by Richard Laing, MD, a professor of international health at Boston University, who led the analysis. In comparison, the WHO set a target of four times the international benchmark as an acceptable pricing level, according to the report.

Median costs for brand name and store brand over-the-counter medications were 21 and 11 times higher than the benchmark, respectively.

"Very few people pay the full price [for prescription medicines] because they typically have some type of insurance, but we're showing that even with those discounts, they're still paying more" than consumers in other countries, said Dr. Laing, according to the report.

Dr. Laing and fellow researchers gathered prices for 50 medicines that are considered essential to meeting healthcare needs by the WHO, including various drugs for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and infections. Over-the-counter medicines included in the study were treatments for headaches, heartburn and allergies, according to the report.

The researchers collected data on prices at independent and chain store pharmacies, as well as large retailers with pharmacy departments, such as Target, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in the Boston metropolitan area. They found the median prices for all prescription medicines at Target and Wal-Mart were significantly lower than the independent and chain pharmacies. For instance, the median prices at Wal-Mart and Target were 4.4 times higher than the international benchmark, nearly matching the WHO's recommendation.

However, the large retailers don't always carry all of the drugs. While Wal-Mart and Target offered the lowest median prices for brand name and generic drugs, they only had about half of the drugs needed for acute illnesses in stock and just 37 percent of the treatments for chronic ailments, according to the report.

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