Source: FiercePharma
Still,
it does feel as if something's happening here. The building tensions over
pricing, and a review of the top 15 companies by 2016 revenues,
suggests the relentless march forward of drug prices and profits may have
slowed. Sales
for the top 15 companies were up about 4% for the year combined, certainly not
a figure that shows great strides. Four companies in the top 15 saw their
revenues fall for the year, while others reported results that would be
classified as flat.
The
companies prominent in the diabetes field have been under payer pressure for
several years now, and sales at Sanofi and Novo Nordisk illustrate that, even
if Eli Lilly managed to see some significant gains in diabetes meds in the
fourth quarter.
And
of course we've seen the drug price probes into both generic and
branded drugs and the public flogging of Mylan over its EpiPen price hikes. And
don't forget that the newly elected president called a bunch of pharma CEOs to
his office to lecture them to get drug prices “way down” and U.S. investments
way up.
Even
before that, some drugmakers had responded to the rising chorus of
criticism by pledging to keep price increases to single
digits. Others have since followed suit, prompting questions about some
drugmakers' ability to continue growing sales without pricing freedom.
Perhaps
the most telling moment came during the third quarter, when wholesaler McKesson
reported earnings and net income that were off about 50%, then revised its
earnings outlook downward for the year, leading investors to bust its share
price down by 20% for the day. McKesson and other wholesalers had already been
reporting major softness in generic pricing, but this time it was branded
prescription drug prices that were softening, and McKesson warned that it
looked like a situation likely to bleed through this year, too.
Still,
the pharma industry has managed over the years to maintain a
Teflon-like exterior that has shed controversy and various legislative
assaults. In fact, Express Scripts, the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits manager,
recently said its calculations show brand-name list price
increases in 2016 were nearly 11%. So maybe drugmakers will come out of
this brouhaha with little lasting damage.
Top 15 pharma companies by 2016 revenue
