This Is the Most Expensive Drug in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Sep 19, 2:30PM EDT · Published Sep 13, 7:30AM EDT

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This Is the Most Expensive Drug in America — © busracavus / Getty Images

Most of the most prescribed medications in America are to treat pain or lower the risk of heart disease. At the top of that list, according to Medicine.net, are Vicodin, Zocor and Metformin. Many of these are available for as little as $5 because of the health insurance copay system. The prices of some rare drugs can be hundreds or even thousands of times that expensive.

Prescription expense drug screener GoodRx looked at the most expensive drugs in America. According to Becker’s Hospital Review: “GoodRx tracked the most expensive drugs in the country, including drugs filled at pharmacies and drugs that can only be administered by healthcare professionals.”

The figures were based on the annualized cost of a typical length of treatment. The analysis pointed out that the price of most of these drugs has remained flat since March. Only Folotyn has had a price increase. It rose 3% between April and July. Its price, based on the methodology, is $817,865. It is used, in certain cases, to treat T-cell lymphoma.

The most expensive drug on the list is Zolgensma, at a one-time cost of $2,125,000. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019. According to the European Medicines Agency: “Zolgensma is a gene therapy medicine for treating spinal muscular atrophy, a serious condition of the nerves that causes muscle wasting and weakness.”
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This medication is the only gene treatment for this condition. The reason for the high price almost certainly reflects the costs to develop it. The drug was developed by pharmaceutical company AveXis. GoodRx points out that most insurance companies do not cover this cost. However, the drug only needs to be administered once. One way Folotyn is more “affordable” is that an insurance company can make payments spread over five years.

Here is the average annual cost of the 10 most expensive drugs in America:

Zolgensma: $2,125,000
Zokinvy: $1,032,480
Danyelza: $977,664
Myalept: $889,904
Luxturna: $850,000
Folotyn: $817,865
Brineura: $730,340
Blincyto: $712,672
Ravicti: $695,970
Soliris: $678,392

Click here to see the 25 most dangerous drugs.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.