For the ninth consecutive month, annual drug price inflation (MED CPI) exceeded general inflation (CPI)
As reported by the Latin American Center for Economic and Social Policies (Clapes UC), the monthly variation of the CPI Med was 0.2% in the case of list prices and 0.3% for discounted prices.
During the last 12 months, the annual change in CPI Med prices was 6.7% for list prices (the smallest annualized change since January 2023) and 5.8% for discount prices.
In the case of the general INE CPI, the monthly variation was 0.7%, while that of the INE medicines CPI was -0.2%.
In the last 12 months, the general INE CPI rose 3.8%. During January 2024, the INE does not report annualized variation for the CPI of its “medicines” subbasket, due to methodological changes associated with the new base year 2023 that the INE CPI considers.
The annual percentage variation of the Med CPI with list prices exceeded the annual variation of the general INE CPI for the ninth consecutive month, despite the drop in inflation during January.
In January 2024, the annual increase in the Med CPI (list prices) exceeded the annual variation in the general INE CPI by 2.9 percentage points.
Diabetes medications
When analyzing the groups of medications that make up the CPI Med according to therapeutic purpose: the group that became most expensive (list prices) in annual terms was the one used to treat Diabetes Mellitus, with an annualized variation in its average cost per medication of 12. 9%. This group is the most expensive for the eighth consecutive month.
Considering discount prices, the medications that increase the most are those used to treat DM1 (12.9%), followed by those used to treat DM2 (8.7%) and mild or moderate osteoarthritis of the hip and/or knee (Osteoarthritis, 8.6%).
On the other hand, the group of medicines that became the least expensive (list prices) was the one used to treat Epilepsy, with an annualized variation of -5.0%, marking the first time in 6 months that the group of medicines used to treat Epilepsy Heart Failure is not the least expensive.
In the case of list prices, the medications that became most expensive were those used to treat Gastric Ulcers (2.6%), followed by those used to treat DM2 (1.5%) and Heart Failure (1.2%). When considering discount prices, the medications that became most expensive during January were those used to treat T2DM (1.9%), followed by those used to treat Heart Failure (1.3%) and Osteoarthritis (1.2%).
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