10 Expensive Drugs The US Gov Will Target For Price Cuts
Which Drugs, Why, And What The Drug Companies Have to Say About It
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🗞 BIDEN TO BIG PHARMA: LET’S MAKE A DEAL
The Biden administration released its long-awaited list of the first 10 medicines that will be subject to price negotiations with Medicare. The negotiation process was authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law last year.
It follows decades of debate over whether the federal government should be allowed to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma is not pleased.
The Biden administration is focused on 10 medicines to start:
1. Eliquis, for preventing strokes and blood clots, Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer
2. Jardiance, for diabetes and heart failure, Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly
3. Xarelto, for preventing strokes and blood clots, Johnson & Johnson
4. Januvia, for diabetes, Merck
5. Farxiga, for diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease, AstraZeneca
6. Entresto, for heart failure, Novartis
7. Enbrel, for arthritis and other autoimmune conditions, Amgen
8. Imbruvica, for blood cancers, AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson
9. Stelara, for Crohn’s disease, Johnson & Johnson
10. Fiasp and NovoLog insulin products, for diabetes, Novo Nordisk
📖 You can read more about the medicines and their costs HERE.
BY THE NUMBERS
They are some of the most costly to the US government and average Americans.
The drugs on the list accounted for more than $50 billion in Medicare prescription drug costs between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. This program is projected to save the US government nearly $100 billion over the next decade.
Medicare patients taking the drugs spent a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs on them last year.
For example, Imbruvica, which in a recent 12-month period was taken by 20,000 Medicare beneficiaries with blood cancers, has a sticker price of $17,000 a month.
The blood thinner Eliquis, which was taken by 3.7 million people on medicare, costs about $600 a month.
📅 TIMELINE
Fall 2023: The government plans to meet with the drug manufacturers and also hold patient-focused listening sessions.
February 2024: Government will make its first offer on a maximum fair price and then give drugmakers time to respond.
2026: The lower prices will take effect.
2027: The government aims to add 15 more drugs to its negotiation list.
2028: It then plans to add up to 20 more for each year after that.
** Drug companies that refuse to be a part of the new negotiation process will be heavily taxed. **
PUSHBACK FROM BIG PHARMA
There’s been a lot of pushback from the drugmakers. Six pharmaceutical manufacturers — Astellas Pharma, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Merck — have taken the Biden administration to court.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America says pharmacy managers can be forced to move the drugs to different tier that would require higher out-of-pocket payments, or require patients try other drugs first or seek approval before a prescription can be covered.
REPUBLICANS OPPOSE THE EFFORT
GOP strategists say Republicans need to “go after it” and hit Biden on drug pricing. Republican lawmakers say drug companies might pull back on introducing new drugs and limit the type of drugs they bring to market because they’ll be subjected to future price negotiations.
BIDEN 2024
Biden is looking to make this an issue on the campaign trail. In remarks at the White House Tuesday he said, “We’re going to keep standing up to Big Pharma, and we’re not going to back down.”
It’s an issue that polls well with Americans: In a survey late last year by KFF, 89% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans said they support allowing Medicare to negotiate prices.
Separately, the Inflation Reduction Act also included a $35 monthly cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin and, starting in 2025, a $2,000 annual cap on patient costs for drugs taken at home.
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: Politics aside, something needs to be done about the rising cost of medication and health care in the United States. We heard from so many people in the Mo News community who told us that they, or their loved ones, had to stop taking their medications because they’re too expensive.
That jives with some numbers from AARP, which found that 1 in 5 older adults say they’ve engaged in cost-coping strategies such as not filling a prescription or skipping doses to save money on their prescription medications.
It comes as list prices for 25 top Medicare Part D drugs have increased by an average of 226%—or more than tripled—since they first entered the market, greatly exceeding the corresponding rate of general inflation.
⏳ SPEED READ
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🗓 ON THIS DAY: AUGUST 30
1967: Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. He would remain on the court for 24 years. Marshall was a lawyer who successfully argued the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case.
1983: U.S. astronaut Guion Bluford, Jr., became the first African American to travel into space, serving as a mission specialist aboard the shuttle orbiter Challenger, and later flew on three other missions.
1993: The Late Show with David Letterman debuted on CBS; Letterman's previous show, Late Night with David Letterman (1982–93), had aired on NBC.
1997: ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ by the Notorious B.I.G., featuring Puff Daddy and Mase, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
2021: Following a chaotic withdrawal, the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan, some seven years after the war in that country had officially ended.