Many companies do, some don't jack up prices for drug card debut.(Prescription Drugs)

Publication: Medicine & Health

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Thomson Financial Inc.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers showed "a very diverse set of behaviors" in brand-name drug pricing in the months between enactment of the new Medicare drug law and implementation of its initial, transitional provision--a drug discount card accompanied by a $600 drug-buying subsidy for lower-income beneficiaries.

So said John Rother, policy chief of the senior lobby AARP, at a June 30 briefing. But the bottom line, according to Rother is this: Overall, in the first quarter of 2004, manufacturers' wholesale prices for the 197 brand-name prescription medications most often used by people aged 50 and over continued their strong upward climb.

In the wake of its controversial...

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