Derma-Smoothe oil is a topical treatment for eczema that cost $46 in 2009. This year, its retail drugstore price hit $323.
Retin-A Micro, an acne skin treatment, cost $178 in 2009. This year, it was selling for $915.
Prices for dermatology products have increased dramatically in the past six years, according to new research, but few like the price of Cara cream, which is used to treat wartlike precancerous growths as well superficial basal-cell skin cancer.
Its price jumped from $159 in 2009 to $2,865 this year.
"This is really a phenomenon that is pervasive throughout the entire pharmaceutical industry," said lead author Miranda Rosenberg. "It has the potential to bankrupt our system."
Rosenberg, a third-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, teamed up on the paper with her father, Steven Rosenberg, a West Palm Beach, Fla., dermatologist who also teaches at the University of Miami. It was published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology.
The paper, which involved a survey of 19 dermatology products, found they had increased an average of 401 percent between 2009 and 2015. The survey was based on prices at four national chain pharmacies: Costco, CVS, Sam's Club and Walgreens. The surveyed stores all were in Florida, though prices at the individual chains were consistent around the country.
"The majority of the drugs are bread and butter drugs that a lot of patients are on," Miranda Rosenberg said.
