A new report on retail prices of brand-name drugs shows the 217 products most used by older Americans increased by an average of 8.3 percent during 2009, the largest increase in years, even as inflation was negative.

Over the last five years, according to the report to be released on Wednesday by the senior lobby AARP, the retail prices for the most popular brand-name drugs increased 41.5 percent, while the consumer price index rose 13.3 percent. An AARP official called for measures to hold down drug prices.

Drug industry officials challenged the finding, however, saying select brand-name prices did not reflect the reality of more people using low-price generic drugs. Generics now account for about 75 percent of all dispensed prescriptionsin the United States, according to IMS Health, a research firm.

The industry pointed to a broader survey of drug prices showing they rose by 3.4 percent during 2009. The survey, conducted by the government for its official Consumer Price Index, includes generic as well as brand-name drug prices, Jonathan Church, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said on Tuesday.

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Parents and investors may both be worried by this weekend’s recall of dozens of versions of Children’s Tylenol and several other infants’ and children’s medications made by Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare division.

Three days after the recall late Friday, the stock market appeared to reflect little concern. Johnson & Johnson’s share price rose 1.6 percent – more even than Monday’s rise in the Dow Jones industrial average, of which J&J is one of 30 component companies.

But parents voiced fears to pediatricians and pharmacists, and asked questions about the affected products – two dozen formulations of Tylenol, known generically as acetaminophen, along with liquid formulations of Motrin (ibuprofen), Benadryl (diphenhydramine), and Zyrtec (cetirizine).

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Making simple changes like getting people to take their medicines exactly as directed or to refill their prescriptions on time could save employers and their workers as much as $163 billion a year in healthcare costs, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Inc identified various behaviors including brand loyalty, procrastinating on refills and occasional forgetfulness, that increase treatment costs.

“This is the first time we’ve looked at the behavioral factors that are driving spending,” chief scientist Bob Nease commented about Express Scripts’ annual drug trends report.

The cost of these behaviors is a staggering $1 out of every $5 spent on prescription drugs, which account for 10 percent of the $2.3 trillion Americans spend on healthcare each year.

“When you slice it that way, you get this eye-popping figure of $163 billion,” Nease said in a telephone interview.

The report outlines ways for companies and patients to make people aware of the common habits that can increase the cost of healthcare in the United States as the nation looks for ways to pay for its newly passed healthcare reform legislation.

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The symptoms of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder seem to describe half the people in New York City: restlessness, impatience, impulsivity, procrastination, chronic lateness, and difficulty getting organized, focusing and finishing tasks.

How do you know you have ADHD, which experts compare to having a mind like a pinball, with thoughts flitting in multiple directions. Maybe you’re just overcaffeinated and overworked? And if you do have it, will there be a stigma? Should you try medication? Will it work?

Parents of children with suspected ADHD face a myriad of similar questions. But the concerns can be just as troubling for adults, whose ADHD often goes unrecognized.

An estimated 8% of U.S. children have ADHD, which is also known as ADD, for attention-deficit disorder, and some 50% of them outgrow it, according to government data. About 4.4% of U.S. adults—some 10 million people—also have ADHD and less than one-quarter of them are aware of it.

That’s because while ADHD always starts in childhood, according to official diagnostic criteria, many adults with the disorder went unnoticed when they were young. And it’s only been since the 1980s that therapists even recognized the disorder could persist in adults.

Even now, getting an accurate diagnosis is tricky. Some experts think that too many adults—and children—are being put on medications for ADHD, often by doctors with little experience with the disorder. Others think that many more people could benefit from ADHD drugs and behavioral therapy.

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Reports Reuters:

It may not be surprising, but a new study offers some proof that patients who are worried about their medications are more likely to have side effects from them.

Health

The study involved patients with a particular kind of arthritis. While more research has to be done in patients with other illnesses to know for sure, “my guess would be that this is happening across a wide range of drugs,” Dr. Yvonne Nestoriuc of Philipps-University Marburg in Germany, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health. “This is really something that happens in a lot of patient populations.”

While most medication side effects are not life threatening or seriously harmful, she and her colleagues note in the journal Arthritis Care & Research, they can still be “frightening and distressing” to patients, and can also lead to patients not taking drugs as recommended.

People with a variety of illnesses who don’t feel their medications are necessary and are concerned about their side effects are known to be less likely to take these drugs as directed, the researchers add.

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A study found that most hospital patients don’t really know what drugs they were given during their stay.

The report in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that 44 percent thought they were taking something they were not. Also, 96 percent did not know the name of at least one of the drugs they used, according to a news release on the work from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.

The authors also said that some reviews have found 20 percent of medication doses given in hospitals were wrong.

“Our findings are particularly striking in that we found significant deficits in patient understanding of their hospital medications even among patients who believed they knew, or desired to know, what is being prescribed to them in the hospital,” said Dr. Ethan Cumbler.

The study involved 50 participants who said they knew their outpatient medications, spoke English, and were from the community around the University of Colorado Hospital.

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The Food and Drug Administration wants to reduce the misuse of medications, saying that at least 50,000 hospitalizations a year could be prevented if physicians, pharmacists, patients and parents used greater care in dispensing and taking drugs.

On Thursday, the “Help is Here Express” bus tour will be stopping at the state Capitol building with former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis.

The event will celebrate an important milestone: 6 million patients have now received help from the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) since the program’s launch in April 2005.

PPA, sponsored by America’s pharmaceutical research companies, helps patients who are uninsured and struggling financially find programs that provide prescription medicines for free or nearly free. The “Help is Here Express” bus is staffed by trained specialists able to quickly help uninsured patients in need access information on more than 475 patient assistance programs.

Jerome Bettis will be on hand to speak about the PPA program and to sign autographs. The “Help is Here Express” bus will be available from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

• • Attendees are encouraged to bring canned and boxed food items to support the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and blankets and linens for the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg• •

WHEN: Thursday, October 22, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Press Conference: 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: State Capitol Building – Commonwealth Avenue (by the fountain)

WHO: Ken Johnson , Senior Vice President at Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
Jerome Bettis, former Pittsburgh Steelers running back
Tony Ross, President of United Way of Pennsylvania
Kendall Hanna, Executive Director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank
Tina Nixon , Chief Executive Officer of the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg

For more information, contact: Jess Long (717-712-8359)

The best way to save on prescription drugs is to go generic.

Though that advice has long been known, it’s received a ringing endorsement from AARP’s latest “watchdog report” on drug prices.

Manufacturer prices for widely used brand-name drugs jumped an average of 8.7 percent in 2008 — more than double the general inflation rate of 3.8 percent.

That’s the biggest annual increase in six years.

On the other hand, AARP’s Public Policy Institute found that the average cost of the most common generic drugs fell 10.6 percent last year.

Actually, the prices for most generics didn’t change in 2008, but where prices did drop, the changes often were substantial — sometimes 50 percent or more.

Though generic drugs account for about two-thirds of all retail prescriptions, many people still aren’t taking advantage of the lower prices.

“Consumers looking to cut their drug costs should talk with their doctors or pharmacists about generic equivalents,” said John Rother, AARP’s public policy director.

A generic equivalent might not always look like the brand-name drug, but the active ingredients are regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

The AARP study found that people who take three brand-name medications for chronic conditions saw their drug costs climb by an average of more than $550 last year.

In contrast, people who take three generics enjoyed an average savings of $38 in 2008.

“Switching to generic drugs whenever possible is one of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce your health care bills,” Rother said.

“The bus will tour the state the week of July 27. So far, the PPA has helped nearly 300,000 Pennsylvanians, including about 26,000 in Philadelphia, 14,000 in Pittsburgh, almost 7,000 in the Wilkes Barre/Scranton region and about 4,500 in Allentown.”

This will be the bus’ 23rd tour in Pennsylvania in four years.

Says PhRMA:  “Patients seeking help can call a toll-free number (1-888-4-PPA-NOW; 1-888-477-2669) to talk to a trained operator or access the PPA Web site (www.pparx.org ). Or, of course, they can work with specialists on board the ‘Help is Here Express’ if it rolls into their town. It only takes 10 to 15 minutes to determine if someone may qualify for free or nearly free medicines.”

Pennsylvania residents should check their local newspapers and TV stations to find out when and if the bus will visit their area.