Public Citizen Report: US Drug Companies Ripping Off Americans

By Sharon Zhang, Truthout

[Everyone knows that Big Pharma is ripping off American consumers with high drug prices. But it’s news that the amount of money made in sales in the U.S. is nearly double the sales made in the rest of the world. It’s a marker of how severely abusive the drug pricing system and how urgently we need to include drug pricing reform in Biden’s Build Back Better bill. — Progressive Hub] 

A new analysis by Public Citizen found that the U.S. is spending nearly double what the rest of the world spends combined for key drugs. The report offers further evidence that the country is in dire need of pharmaceutical drug price reformation, which progressives are fighting for through the Build Back Better Act.

The report finds that, for the 20 top-selling drugs worldwide, U.S. sales totaled $101.1 billion, while sales of the same drugs to the rest of the world totaled almost $57 billion in 2020. For 11 of the drugs, revenue in the U.S. was double that of the rest of the world combined. And for 11 of the 13 pharmaceutical companies that sell these drugs, U.S. profits made up most of their revenue.