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As policies from the last two presidential administrations put heightened focus on drug affordability in the United States, a new report suggests much work remains to be done when it comes to the launch prices of novel medicines. From a starting rate of $190,000 in 2022, the median net launch price of U.S. drugs jumped up 35% by 2025, when that median price grew to $257,000, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) and West health said in their Launch Price and Access Report published (PDF) this week. The net price for new drugs—which reflects the practical cost of a medicine after rebates and discounts—decreased slightly between 2024 and 2025 at 2%, although it nevertheless “remained at historically high levels,” putting a strain on U.S. healthcare systems, ICER and West Health said separately in an Oct. 20 release . “This independent analysis shows that we are facing a critical moment in the US health care system,” Sarah Emond, ICER’s president and CEO, said in a statement Monday. “While the US has produced some of the world’s most incredible innovations, patients are still experiencing significant barriers to care,” she continued. “Now more than ever, it is crucial that we start working towards the goal of pairing fair pricing with fair access—leading to a more affordable health system for us all.” Parsing the net price increase on launches, ICER pointed out (PDF) that the “most substantial increase” happened between 2022 and 2023, after which, “launch prices remained relatively stable.” The pattern may have been informed, at least in part, by the differences in types of drugs launched each year, with ICER suggesting that launch prices seemed to “trend upward when accounting for these differences.” ICER is a nonprofit that performs cost-benefit calculus on medicines and diagnostics in the U.S., helping to appraise those interventions’ value and suggest fair prices. West Health, for its part, was founded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, with a focus on lowering healthcare costs to help seniors “successfully age in place.” ICER noted in its research protocol (PDF) that it gleaned its net price data from multiple sources, including SSR Health, IPD Analytics and the Federal Supply Schedule. Digging deeper into the findings, ICER and West Health’s report noted that nearly one-fourth of drugs rolled out last year had an annual net price topping $500,000, while an additional 34% had launch prices ranging from $200,000 to $500,000. Moreover, only around one in three newly approved drugs that ICER previously reviewed between 2022 and 2025 fell at or below the organization’s recommended price benchmark. Topping the list of drugs with prices ICER has deemed insufficient value for money was Insmed’s Brinsupri, approved in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis last summer and which the cost watchdog suggested needs an up to 95.5% discount to be priced in line with its value benchmark. Merck’s pulmonary arterial hypertension drug Winrevair also landed near the top of the rankings, with ICER suggesting that the activin signaling inhibitor could benefit from a price cut between 82.7% and 91.2%. ICER reached those discount targets according to the price cuts needed to reach a cost-effectiveness threshold of $150,000 per equal value life year gained and $100,000 per quality-adjusted life year gained. Other notable products tagged for suggested discount included Bristol Myers Squibb’s cardiomyopathy drug Camzyos, Merck’s Ohtuvayre for COPD, Novartis’ kidney disease med Fabhalta, Eisai and Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease antibody Leqembi, and the gene therapy Casgevy and CAR-T treatment Carvykti, to name a few. Those high launch prices add to an already complex confluence of factors when it comes to new drug access, ICER and West Health explained. In their research, the partners found that just one-third of outpatient prescriptions for drugs launched between July 2024 and June 2025 were ultimately filled within 30 days, adding that nearly 4 in 10 prescriptions of drugs approved over that same timeframe were rejected due to non-coverage, with patients on Medicare facing the biggest roadblocks. The majority of those rejections can be credited to new-to-market blocks, ICER argued, calling on payers to have coverage policies available on a quicker timeline following FDA sign-off. “A rapid shift in behavior to price drugs in line with value is needed, and should be met with streamlined access to new drugs with little to no cost-sharing for patients,” ICER concluded in a summary of the report. Drugmakers within the industry have frequently taken issue with how ICER appraises the value of medicines, also reflected in the organization’s regular drug price increase reports, which leverage similar assessment metrics. The report comes as U.S. lawmakers have made efforts to corral high drug costs on multiple fronts, from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and the Medicare price negotiations it installed, to the more recent “ Most Favored Nation ” policy rolled out by the second Trump White House, which broadly seeks to align the costs of medicines in the U.S. with prices paid in a basket of high-income comparator countries. Both approaches have received pushback, with IRA the target of multiple—albeit frequently unsuccessful —challenges by the industry, which has broadly argued that the Medicare negotiations are unconstitutional and force manufacturers’ hands if they hope to participate in the program. President Trump’s MFN pacts with major drugmakers, meanwhile, have become a target of patient advocacy groups and political rivals who’ve drawn attention to the lack of clarity around the agreements and their exact terms. Against that backdrop, the issue of healthcare affordability remains top of mind for many Americans. In a recent poll from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare from July, nearly 40% of people surveyed said they were “concerned” or “very concerned” about the ability of their households to pay for needed prescription drugs in the next year. That was up from 25% who reported that rate of concern in 2022, ICER and West Health pointed out.

Dive Brief:The launch prices of two-thirds of the new prescription drugs reviewed by the watchdog group ICER between 2022 and 2025 far exceeded the organizations threshold of cost-effectiveness, according to a report published Tuesday.When adjusted for inflation, the median net price of new medicines spiked from $190,000 in 2022 to $257,000 in 2025, though most of that upswing occurred early on, ICER said. The 2025 figure includes high-cost gene and cell therapies that are expensive to manufacture but are often only administered once. Nearly a quarter of the drugs ICER evaluated last year had a net price surpassing $500,000.ICER called on drugmakers to enact fair pricing. The group also pushed insurers to boost access to new therapies, noting that four in 10 prescriptions for the medicines it reviewed were rejected and that the statistics were worse for Medicare recipients. Value-based drug pricing should be met with streamlined access to new drugs with little to no cost-sharing for patients, ICER argued.Dive Insight:Drug costs continue to be a hot-button topic in the U.S. The majority of Americans believe the price tags for prescription medicines are unreasonable and worry about being able to afford them, according to a recent poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.Successive presidential administrations have sought to address this issue in one way or another. Former President Joe Biden signed into law a policy that, for the first time, gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for certain drugs. Donald Trump has formed more than a dozen deals asking drugmakers to adopt most-favored nation prices in return for tariff relief. These moves have yet to meaningfully affect pharmaceutical companies bottom lines.The cost of medicines is a thorny issue for the pharmaceutical industry, which has long argued that drug innovation a highly risky endeavor requires a substantial return on investment to be worthwhile. ICER, or the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, has for years aimed to provide a counter-voice, using a methodology that compares prices to the value medicines provide to argue costs should be lower.Drugmakers have contended that ICERs cost-effectiveness guidelines, which take into account how medicines extend survival or improve quality of life, are flawed. Yet that framework is similar to what agencies in other countries, like the U.K.s National Institute for Clinical Excellence, use to evaluate medicines. ICERs benchmarks for value are $100,000 or $150,000 per quality adjusted life year, an academic measure of one year of perfect health.ICERs latest report drew statistics from the 26 drugs it previously reviewed and that were approved between 2022 and 2025. Of those medicines,Insmeds lung-disease drug Brinsupri and Merck & Co.s pulmonary arterial hypertension medicine Winrevair were judged to have the biggest disconnects between their net prices and overall value. ICER contended that both would need discounts of around 90% from their current costs to meet its guidelines.Johnson & Johnson and Legend Biotechs CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma, Carvykti, could be reduced by one-third from its $465,000 net price to justify its cost, ICER said.Vertex Pharmaceuticals non-opioid pain drug Journavx, on the other hand, is priced within ICERs cost-effectiveness thresholds. And Casgevy, the gene editing treatment from Vertex and partner CRISPR Therapeutics, might only need a 7% reduction from its $2.2 million net price to represent good value for money. '