Drug prices Among top-selling drugs in the program, the per-unit cost of Sanofi’s Renvela, which is used by dialysis patients, climbed by an average of 21.6 percent between 2012 and 2016. (Photo: Shutterstock)

The U.S spent 60 percent more on drugs for Medicare patients in 2016 than it did in four years earlier, according to newly released federal data, countering pharmaceutical industry arguments that prescription medicine represents only a small and stable portion of health-care costs.

Among top-selling drugs in the program, the per-unit cost of Sanofi’s Renvela, which is used by dialysis patients, climbed by an average of 21.6 percent between 2012 and 2016, the most recent year for which data are available. Unit costs for AbbVie Inc.’s Humira, a blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug, rose at an average pace of 18 percent a year during the same period, according to the figures released Tuesday by the Trump administration.

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