Despite the candidates calling for lower drug prices--or maybe because of it--drug prices rose almost 8 percent last year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. That's nearly double the general inflation rate.

Writes the Journal on the politics of drug prices: 

Drug makers are trying to keep revenues afloat by raising prices ahead of many drug-patent expirations and the possibility of changing government regulations, part of the presidential candidates' agendas. But aggressive price increases could backfire politically, pushing policies toward greater government power over price negotiations. 

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have railed against drug company profiteering in their reform plans. That's no surprise coming from Democrats.

But so has Republican John McCain, whose party tends to support free enterprise and less regulation. When during one debate Mitt Romney told McCain not to consider drug companies "the big bad guys," McCain famously replied, "Well, they are." 

Like the Democrats, McCain supports allowing imports of cheaper drugs form abroad, and giving Medicare the power to negotiate with pharma companies over drug costs.  

The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report has a good rundown on the link between reform plans and rising drug prices--and responses from both sides of the debate.