The U.S. spent about 150% more on prescription drugs in 2018 compared with dozens of other countries, according to a new RAND Corporation analysis.
On average, prescription drug prices were 2.56 times higher in the U.S. than in 32 other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nations, reported RAND’s Andrew Mulcahy, PhD, MPP, and colleagues.
When focusing solely on G7 nations, U.S. prices ranged from about twice as high as those in Japan, to about 2.6 times those in France. Not surprisingly, the gap was even wider for brand-name drugs, with the U.S. paying an average of 3.44 times more for these than the 32 other nations.
