Cancer And Arthritis Drugs Drive Up Spending On Medicines

Spending on prescription drugs in the U.S. rose 5.2 percent in 2015, driven mostly by increased costs of expensive specialty medications to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to data from the largest manager of employers' drug benefits.

Spending on specialty medications rose 18 percent, while spending on standard prescription drugs rose less than one percent, according to a new report by Express Scripts. The report is based on the prescription drug spending for the company's 80 million covered patients.

The measure — called "drug trend" in pharmaceutical industry parlance — includes increases in the use of medications and price hikes.

More