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Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Drugmakers raised U.S. prices on brand-name treatments at about twice the rate of inflation during the second quarter, slightly slower than a year earlier, the consumer group AARP reported.

The prices paid by wholesalers for 193 of the most widely prescribed brand-name medicines used by Americans ages 50 and older rose 0.9 percent on average in the second three months this year, according to a report by the Washington-based AARP. That's down from a 1 percent increase in the period last year. Consumer inflation in the quarter was 0.5 percent, AARP said.

AARP, with 36 million members the biggest lobbying group representing seniors, has been trying to force drugmakers to lower prices. U.S. pharmaceutical sales will rise as much as 7 percent to $259 billion in 2005, according to Fairfield, Connecticut-based IMS Health Inc., a data supplier. The U.S. accounts for 43 percent of all pharmaceutical sales.

The second-quarter slowing in the rate of increase followed a pattern seen in years past, the AARP said. Drug manufacturers tend to make most of their price increases in February and July, the group said.

Expanding government drug coverage for seniors and efforts by states to reduce costs won't be enough to keep medicines affordable, Rother said. Consumers will need more data in the future on which drugs work best among different classes of medicines, and consumers and states should be allowed to import cheaper medicines from Canada, he said.

A typical senior without drug benefits taking three prescription medicines a day would have paid $97.14 more on average at the end of June than a year earlier. For the 12 months ending in March, the increase was $144.15.

About three-quarters of the drugs in the study, or 142 medicines, had price increases in the first six months this year, according to the study, part of an ongoing survey of drug prices by the group's public policy institute.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, the world's largest closely held drugmaker, reported the biggest price increase on a medicine, 18.6 percent, for its Atrovent respiratory treatment, in the six months through June. Sanofi Aventis SA's Ambien for insomnia had a 14.4 price increase.

Boehringer Ingelheim reported the highest average price increase of any manufacturer, with 10 percent, in the six months through June, followed by Procter & Gamble Co., King Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Monarch Pharmaceuticals unit, Novartis AG and Eli Lilly & Co.

AARP researchers measure changes in the price drugmakers charge wholesalers, which the report said was the biggest component of a brand-name's retail price.

A study released last week by Express Scripts Inc., the third-biggest U.S. pharmacy benefit manager, said wider use of cheaper, generic drugs might lower U.S. health-care costs by at least $20 billion annually. The findings may encourage health plans and employers, who expect health costs to grow 9.9 percent next year, to steer more patients to generic drugs.

Sales of generic drugs may rise to $45 billion in eight of the world's biggest markets in 2006, according to an IMS Health Inc. report released Oct. 25. Overall global pharmaceutical sales will rise as much as 7 percent next year to $650 billion, a slower pace than this year.

Medicare will start paying for prescription drugs Jan. 1, the biggest expansion in the 40-year history of the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. About a third of Medicare's 42 million enrollees don't have drug coverage, according to the government.

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