Drugs for Alzheimer’s patients may be in short supply, but there are a number of pharmaceutical companies that have raised the price of a drug in recent years, including the maker of the blockbuster drug AstraZeneca.
The company is selling its new AstraMed, a cholesterol-lowering drug for Alzheimer patients, for $8.35 a pill on the open market, a 20% increase from the price it paid in July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
This is about twice as much as a generic version of the drug, which is about $3.70 per pill.
The price increase is about 3% more than AstraNet, which was sold on the secondary market for $3 a pill, according a Bloomberg analysis of government data.
The price hike comes amid an increase in the cost of drugs in Alzheimer’s disease, according the Alzheimer’s Association.
The drug, AstraZyme, is the most widely used treatment for Alzheimers and was sold in the United States for $25.8 billion in 2015, according Bloomberg data.
The generic version, AstriZeneca, was sold for $11.2 billion in the same period.
The increase comes after AstraHealth Inc., a subsidiary of Astra Pharmaceuticals Corp., sold AstraMe, which includes AstraCholesterol, for about $8 per pill in March.
The same month, Astree, a subsidiary, sold Astria for about 1.5 times the price, Bloomberg data showed.
Pharmaceuticals are a growing part of the pharmaceuticals business.
Last year, the United Kingdom, which has more than 20 million prescriptions for prescription drugs, spent $5.7 billion on them, according Reuters data.
In the U.S., there were more than 8,000 drug approvals last year, according data from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The rise in price of generic drugs may be a sign that drug makers are focusing on making sure they can get high profits from their products, as the cost for a drug to make money is higher than the cost to make the drug.
The cost of a generic drug is usually less than what the brand name would cost, so drug makers can profit from their own products at lower prices.
The number of prescriptions for Astra drugs has fallen for the last decade, according Kaiser Health News data.
Astra has seen sales fall about 40% in the last year and a half, according Bayer Pharmaceuticals Inc. data from last year.
Astrazeneca’s price hike came after Astana also said it will raise prices for its cholesterol drug, Astrale, by 15% on the new year.
Shares of Astana Pharmaceuticals fell 7.4% on Thursday.
The company said it would not raise prices to Astra patients because the price increase was part of an overall cost-cutting plan.
Bayer said it has “no plans to increase prices for Astana or AstraX,” a generic of the Astra brand.
AstraZeneca said its Astra medicine has been selling well.
Its Astra Med is in the top 10 most popular drugs on the U