Merck KGaA Hiked Price of Old MS Drug to Nearly $100,000 a Year

Merck KGaA has hiked the annual price of its multiple sclerosis drug Rebif to nearly $100,000 this year, a 12 percent increase for a two-decade-old medicine that proved less effective than a newer treatment in patient trials.

The increase means that the sticker price of Rebif in the U.S. is now more than 50 percent higher than that of Roche Holding AG’s Ocrevus, the drug that bested Rebif in studies. The actual difference is probably smaller, because list prices for drugs in the U.S. don’t account for negotiated, undisclosed discounts.

Though price hikes for older drugs are common in the ...