What to know about January's annual drug price hikes

Drug price hikes appear to be moderate this year, with some drug prices falling. (Elise Amendola/AP)

Elise Amendola / Elise Amendola

Drug companies often increase prices at the start of the new year, and 2024 seems to be no exception. There have been about 600 price hikes so far in January, according to the drug price nonprofit 46Brooklyn Research.

But the increases haven’t been as steep as they were in some previous years. In the 2010s, drug price hikes were typically much bigger — up to 10% on average

“Since 2016, the pedal to the metal has been kind of pulled back a little bit, where we typically see the weighted average impact of a price increase and the median price increase hovering at around 5%,” says 46Brooklyn’s CEO, Anthony Ciaccia.