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The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) recently released its fourth report to the Legislature on prescription drug price transparency: 2025 Report to the Minnesota Legislature (PDF). The report presents analysis of information reported to MDH between July 2023 and June 2024, provides a summary and timeline for the implementation of new work, and assesses the Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act’s (the Act) progress toward statutory goals.
The Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act requires that MDH to collect data on prescription drug prices, make it publicly available, and submit annual reports to the Legislature. These activities aim to promote transparency in pharmaceutical pricing in Minnesota, enhance understanding of pharmaceutical spending trends, and assist the state and other payers in the management of pharmaceutical costs.
Key findings from this report include:
- Between July 2023 and June 2024, there were 943 drugs with price increases that required reporting to Minnesota. These drugs accounted for more than11% of prescription drug payments. Approximately 82,000 Minnesota residents had a prescription filled for at least one of the drugs.
- The price increase for these prescription drugs totaled more than $10 million in additional health care spending in the state—averaging $122 in additional drug spending per patient taking one or more of these medications.
- Overall, many pricing trends in this report are in line with those of previous reports. Like last year’s report, the therapeutic class with the greatest number of new, high-priced drugs requiring reporting was for anti-cancer drugs. Additionally, the rate of price growth among drugs requiring reports remains steadily high: the median five-year price increase among drugs requiring a report was over 30%.
- Researchers, policymakers, and the public continue to seek out data reported to MDH under Minnesota’s Prescription Drug Transparency initiative. In 2024 alone, the number of subscribers to MDH’s mailing list on prescription drug price transparency topped 8,000, and MDH saw more than 32,000 visits to its web pages.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) wants to hear from you!
Have prescription drug prices impacted your health care? What do you think is creating affordability challenges for patients? What drugs – and their prices – have a substantial public interest and would benefit from pricing transparency?
By completing the Public Input on Prescription Drug Price Transparency in Minnesota form, you can share your experiences and suggest where you think MDH should focus its drug price transparency work.
Stay Connected
MDH will continue to release updates on implementation on the MDH Rx Price Transparency website. For questions, please email heal...@state.mn.us.
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