WASHINGTON D.C.: According to healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors, during January, historically the month when drugmakers raise prices, pharmaceutical companies that include Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and Sanofi, will raise the prices of more than 350 drugs in the US.

The price rises are part of the preparations by the pharmaceutical industry to comply with the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well as their efforts to deal with inflation and supply chain constraints, which have caused higher manufacturing costs.

The increases are on list prices of drugs, which do not include rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts.

According to data published by 46brooklyn, a drug pricing non-profit connected to 3 Axis, in 2022 drugmakers raised the prices of more than 1,400 drugs, the most since 2015.

The price increase last year was 4.9 percent, while the average increase was 6.4 percent, both lower than US inflation rates, 46brooklyn added.

Since pharmaceutical companies came under criticism for too many price hikes in the middle of the last decade, drugmakers have mainly increased prices under 10 percent.

Antonio Ciaccia, president of 3 Axis, said that due to the attention paid to annual price increases, drugmakers have focused on launching their drugs at higher prices.

"Drug makers have to take a harder look at calibrating those launch prices out of the gate, so they do not box themselves into the point where in the future, they cannot price their way back into profitability," as quoted by Reuters.

Notable increases include a 9 percent price rise for Bristol Myers Squibb's personalized CAR-T cell therapies for blood cancer, Abecma and Breyanzi, both of which already cost more than $400,000.

More drug price rises are likely to be announced in January.