Drug prices are kept high in US by protection and price negotiations, study finds

The high cost of prescription drugs in the United States is due in large part to the monopoly power granted to manufacturers through the drug and patent approval processes, together with restrictions that limit the ability of payers to negotiate prices, researchers have concluded in a study in JAMA.1

Currently, per capita prescription drug spending in the US is the highest in the world, reaching $858 (£660; €760) in 2013, more than twice the average of $400 in 19 other industrialized nations.

In the new study, Aaron S Kesselheim, of Harvard Medical …