Following free drug sample receipt, patients who receive these samples have significantly higher out-of-pocket prescription costs than those who don't, according to the first study to look at the out-of-pocket cost associated with free-sample use, published in the March 24, 2008, issue of Medical Care.

Prescribing costs increase dramatically when people reach 65, according to a detailed analysis of more than five million patients published in the March issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Drug costs have been increasing during 2007, especially those mainly prescribed to elderly.

An international study of dialysis patients shows that although U.S. residents have the highest out-of-pocket drug costs, even those who can afford their prescription drugs are far less likely to take them than patients in other countries.

Brazil’s strategy of negotiating AIDS drug prices with multinational pharmaceutical companies and producing generic AIDS drugs locally saved that country’s AIDS program approximately 1 billion US dollars between 2001 and 2005, according to research published in PLoS Medicine.

Many seniors quit taking drugs for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure when they exceed their drug plan’s yearly spending limits, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

Research in Norway has shown that there have been substantial savings in drug costs since the introduction of a regulation requiring doctors to prescribe the recommended first-line treatment for hypertension (high blood pressure). Since March 2004, family doctors have been reimbursed for drug costs only if they prescribe thiazides as first-line therapy for uncomplicated hypertension, unless there are medical reasons for selecting other drugs.