FDA to monitor how pricing of drugs influences consumers’ choices

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will be conducting a study into the pricing of pharmaceutical products, to see how costs influence the purchasing choices of healthcare professionals and consumers alike.

Currently, most decisions are made based on the reported effectiveness and safety of a drug, but the FDA wants to find out how often their prices are also taken into account.

This announcement follows a study earlier this year that revealed patients are more likely to opt for drugs that are marketed at a higher price.

Doctors tested this using a placebo, offering a group of patients with Parkinson's disease the chance to either have treatment costing $100 (67.88 pounds) per dose or one priced at $1,500 a time.

Despite the drug in question being a simple saline solution, those who opted for the more expensive placebo believed its results to be more effective.

Therefore, it will certainly be interesting to see the results of the FDA investigation into drug pricing.