By Steve Thompson, Federica Cocco and Christopher Rowland | The Washington Post
While overall medical costs continued to rise, prescription drug prices fell by 3.1 percent in the year ending in July, the steepest annual decline since 1963.
Prescription drug prices recorded the biggest year-over-year drop in more than 60 years in July, a startling reduction experts chalked up to an array of factors, including more generics and discount GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
While overall costs for medical services continued to rise, prices for medicinal drugs fell 2.7 percent over the 12 months ending in July, the largest annual drop on record, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday. Prescription drugs, part of the medicinal drug category, fell by 3.1 percent, the steepest annual decline since March 1963.
The White House took credit for the good news, saying President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash drug prices were working. Some experts said a Biden-era policy that requires Medicare to negotiate prices for some popular prescription drugs is more likely to be driving down costs.
The drop in prescription drug prices is one of the few bright spots in the U.S. consumer price index, which provides a snapshot of inflation. “Just what the doctor ordered!” Renaissance Macro, an investment research company, posted to X on Wednesday.
Inflation has been running high for more than five years, sparked by the economic disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic and Washington’s response to it. More recently, prices have been rising because of energy pressures fueled by the war with Iran.
Prescription drug prices, on the other hand, have slid sharply over the past six months, Renaissance Macro said, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.6 percent — “the sharpest six month drop on record.”
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