Drug prices: the US against Germany and Europe
Six medicines that cost many times more in the US — with the official prices from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, and what an insured patient in Germany pays.
| Medicine | Unit | United States | Germany | Switzerland | Austria | Netherlands | German patient pays | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EpiPen | 2 auto-injectors | ~$225 (generic, pharmacy cost) | €147.12 statutory ceiling | CHF 109.30 | €121.10 (2 × €60.55, excl. VAT) | €96.94 (2 × €48.47) | €10 co-payment | Read the article → |
| Insulin (Humalog) | one 10 mL vial | $63.55 (pharmacy cost) | no official price list | CHF 38.65 | €27.28 (excl. VAT) | €17.87 | at most €10 per pack | Read the article → |
| Salbutamol inhaler | 200 doses | no like-for-like figure (Combivent: ~$497) | €18.78 (Ventolin; ceiling €21.62) | CHF 13.60 | €5.50 (Sultanol, excl. VAT) | €3.24 | €5 co-payment | Read the article → |
| Ozempic | one 1 mg pen (a month) | $995.82 (pharmacy cost) | no official price list | CHF 106.20 | €104.35 (excl. VAT) | €107.98 | €5–€10 for type 2 diabetes | Read the article → |
| Mounjaro | by strength | ~$1,112 a month (list price) | €807.84 for 3 × 5 mg pens (G-BA) | CHF 223.80–388.40 per pen | not in the reimbursement code | €176.58–433.82 per pen | co-payment for type 2 diabetes; full price for weight loss | Read the article → |
| Wegovy | maintenance dose | $1,349 per 4-week pack (list price) | not covered, no official price list | CHF 176.95 per pen | not in the reimbursement code | €184.35 per pen | full price | Read the article → |
Price concepts differ: US = pharmacy acquisition cost (CMS NADAC) or the maker's list price; Germany = statutory ceiling or pharmacy price; Switzerland = public price incl. VAT; Austria = social-insurance price excl. VAT; Netherlands = average pharmacy price. Sources and dates are in each article. Cost information, not medical advice.
Open data: the official prices on this page as CSV (Q4 2026 edition, October 2026; column "as_of" = state of the source, for Switzerland the retrieval state of the Spezialitätenliste). Licence for our compilation: CC BY 4.0, attribution "Wellness Vision, wellnessvision.health". The raw data belong to the agencies named; Austrian reimbursement-code data are not included because of their terms of use. We publish the file quarterly as a new edition; every row keeps its as-of date. Changes from the previous edition: first quarterly edition, identical in content to the October 2026 file.