U.S. Prescription Drug Prices Hit Record Annualized Decline

Prescription drug prices in the United States fell 0.8 percent in July, according to the government's consumer price index released Wednesday. This decline marks the fifth drop in the last seven months, and prices have not increased at any point during the current year. Compared to one year ago, prescription drug prices have decreased by 3.1 percent.

Economic analysis from Renaissance Macro Research, LLC indicates that prices have fallen at an annualized rate of 6.6 percent over the last six months, the sharpest drop on record. Non-prescription medicine prices also declined by 0.3 percent in July, resulting in a year-over-year decrease of 1.7 percent for those products.

These trends follow a December pledge by Donald Trump that American drug prices would decrease rapidly to become among the lowest in the developed world.