On Tuesday the Biden administration releases its list of 10 prescription medicines which will be subject to the firs-ever price negotiations and it is by the U.S. Medicare health program which covers on an average 66 million people and with big-selling blood thinner Eliquis from the Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer is among them.
Joe Biden the president’s signature inflation reduction act which signed into law the very last year has allowed the Medicare health program for Americans who are aged around 65 and are over to negotiate prices for some of its most costly drugs
According to the reports there is literally no reason why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation that too for life-saving prescriptions that is just to pad Big Pharma’s pockets this was said by Biden and he even said that the once implemented, the prices on the so-called negotiated drugs will decrease for up-to 9 million senior who currently pay as much as $6,497 in out of the pocket per year for these prescriptions.
The shares of all the drugmakers were mostly flat in premarket trading and the S&P 500 health care index was seen up 0.6% at 0941 ET.
This has kicked off the negotiation process for the 10 drugs whose new prices will immediately go into effect in the year 2026. This program has aimed to save $25 billion per year on the drug prices by the year 2031. U.S laws had prohibited the Medicare drug program from negotiating pharmaceutical prices which is a part of its prescription drug program that usually began around 20 years ago.
The U.S centres usually for Medicare and Medicaid services that has spent $50.5 billion between June 1 in 2022 and May 31 in the year 2023 on the 10 drugs which is the time period that is used to determine which drugs are eligible for negotiation. This was considered about 20% of the total cost of drugs in the Medicare prescription drug program which is also known as Part D.
