Here's how important price hikes are to the biggest drugmakers

The pricing of pharmaceuticals has never been so in the spotlight.

From $750 pills that once were $13.5o to companies that raised the price on more than 100 drugs at the start of 2016, drugmakers that were once able to skirt their way around the question of prices are now being scrutinized

Now, Forbes has outlined just how important price hikes are to some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies. In a profile of Martin Shkreli, who is notorious for enacting a 5000% increase on a decades-old drug, reporter Matthew Herper detailed which drugmakers draw the most revenue growth from price increases, over a three year period.

Using research compiled by SSR, Forbes found that other companies were also in the habit of raising prices to drive revenue growth - just not at the same extreme as Shkreli did.

Here were some of the companies Forbes highlighted, ranked by the percentage of three-year worldwide revenue growth from pricing.

• AbbVie - 112%
• Bristol-Myers Squibb - 47%
• Pfizer - 34%
• Merck - 29%

We've reached out to the companies for comment, and will update this post when we hear back.

Read the full Forbes article here.

NOW WATCH: Turns out exercise might not be a cure for weight gain

Please enable Javascript to watch this video