As more United States drug price changes have come to light this month, it remains clear that companies are tamping down their urge to jack them up, settling for more modest, across-the-board increases.
More than 930 drug products have seen list price increases so far this year, with the median jump at 4%, according to tracking from 46brooklyn, an Ohio-based nonprofit research group that compiles pharmaceutical pricing data. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the industry's updated pricing moves on Tuesday.
The price bumps so far this year pale in comparison to those from—for example—10 years ago, when the median price hike was 13.5%.
The latest price changes come as the industry faces government scrutiny for its high drug costs. One factor likely keeping price hikes in check is the Inflation Reduction Act, which mandates this year that companies provide rebates to the government if they raise prices on certain drugs beyond the rate of inflation.
Only a few companies have raised prices by more than 10%. Some of the exceptions are Leadiant Biosciences, which raised the price of eye disease drug Cystaran by 20% and Hodgkin lymphoma treatment Matulane by 15%. In addition, Collegium Pharmaceuticals increased the list price of pain relief drug Nucynta by 15% and Pfizer upped the price of aplastic anemia treatment Atgam by 15%.
While Novartis increased the list price of the oral capsule version of its immunosuppressant Neoral by 10.1%, the company raised the price tag for 10 of its other drugs by 9.9%, perhaps to avoid the stigma of having several drugs with a double-digit boost. All 12 of the increases by Azurity Pharmaceuticals and all seven by Arbor Pharmaceuticals came in at 9%.
Among some of the world’s best-selling drugs, Novo Nordisk increased Ozempic’s price by 3%, while Eli Lilly bumped the price of diabetes drug Mounjaro by 1% and obesity treatment Zepbound by 2.5%.
In the high-stakes battle of eye disease treatments, Roche upped the price of Vabysmo by 2.5%, while Regeneron increased Eylea HD's price by 2% and Eylea's by 2.5%, according to 46brooklyn data.
Top-sellers that have had larger list price increases include GSK’s Shingrix (8.9%), Takeda’s Entyvio (8%) and Amgen’s duo of Enbrel (7%) and Otezla (7%).
In addition, Bristol Myers Squibb increased the list prices for its CAR-T cancer therapies Breyanzi and Abecma by 9% and 6%, respectively.
While most companies mixed up their price changes depending on the treatment, all 11 of those executed by Gilead were for increases of 5.9%.
With more than 80 hikes this year, no company has raised the price of more products than Pfizer in 2025. Novartis has more than 50 drugs on the list. Other companies with 20 or more are AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck, Roche and Sanofi.
There also were a few significant price decreases of note for products that are in decline, including Merck’s Janumet and Januvia at 42% and Bayer’s Nexavar at 50%.