Biden administration names 10 drugs for Medicare price negotiation

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Biden administration on Tuesday announced 10 prescription medications price negotiators selected for price haggling with pharmaceutical companies, part of an effort to lower costs for Medicare recipients.

Collectively the drugs, which include treatments for diabetes, cancer and heart conditions, are taken by more than 9.7 million people who paid $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs last year, with an average annual cost of $6,497 per enrollee.

The drugs cost Medicare more than $47.8 billion to cover in the past year.

“We’re going to stand up to big pharma and we’re not going to back down,” President Joe Biden said in remarks Tuesday from the White House.

Medicare covers people who are at least 65 years old and adults who have disabilities. Lowering drug prices for its recipients was a key element of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, but recipients won’t see the benefits until at least early 2026.

Half of the drugs are used to treat blood clots and diabetes while the others combat heart problems, autoimmune disease and cancer.

The highest-cost drugs selected are Eliquis, which is used for blood clots and costs Medicare more than $16.4 billion each year; Jardiance, used for diabetes and heart failure at a cost of more than $7 billion; and Xarelto, used for blood clots at a cost of more than $6 billion.

The other drugs selected are Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, Fiasp and NovoLog.

Officials said the law will allow Medicare to negotiate prices for up to 60 drugs over the next four years and an additional 20 drugs every following year.

“No senior should have to choose if they will fill their prescription or fill their refrigerator,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday.

Although the White House trumpeted the plan on Tuesday, it’s not a done deal. Several drug manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce and the pharmaceutical industry’s main trade group have filed lawsuits seeking to block Medicare’s negotiation power.

Neera Tanden, a White House domestic policy adviser, said the administration expects to prevail in court.

“There is no part of the Constitution that prohibits Medicare drug negotiations,” she said at Tuesday’s briefing. “We are very confident in these cases and very confident that the law will deliver results.”

If the courts rule against the government, it would be the latest in a series of legal blows against the Biden administration’s goals, joining student loan forgiveness, immigration policies and abortion protections.

White House officials were quick to boost the announcement while taking swipes at Congressional Republicans, who they said are in league with “Big Pharma.”

Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, in a memo released Tuesday, said Medicare has been blocked from negotiating for decades in Congress.

“The result of that blockade was that Americans were forced to pay the highest prices for medicines in the world,” he wrote. “That begins to change this week, because Big Pharma and their Republican allies in Congress finally lost — to Joe Biden and Bidenomics.”

Bates specifically called out Representative Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, for backing lawsuits against the negotiation policy.

“The handouts congressional Republicans are pursuing for Big Pharma would explode our deficit, weaken Medicare, and subject more American seniors and families to price gouging for life-saving medicines,” Bates wrote.

“Across the board, the hallmark of congressional Republicans’ trickle-down economic agenda is to increase costs and financial burdens shouldered by hardworking Americans in exchange for welfare payoffs to the super rich and multinational corporations.”

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