By Berkeley Lovelace Jr. The government is set to begin negotiating prices on the 10 costliest prescription drugs covered by Medicare this week, setting the stage for a fierce tug of war between U.S. officials and drugmakers as the Biden administration attempts to lower soaring prescription drug costs for older adults.
Medicare provides health insurance coverage to more than 65 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.
The negotiations, as mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act, are slated to run through Aug. 1 before final prices are announced on Sept. 1. It's uncharted territory for Medicare, which has never before been able to directly haggle with drugmakers over prices.
“I expect negotiations to be intense,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. “Big Pharma is likely to dig in its heels and use a variety of strategies, including fierce negotiations.” By Thursday, the CMS is expected to send its first pricing offer to each drug company that makes the 10 selected drugs, said Juliette Cubanski, a Medicare expert with KFF, a nonpartisan group that studies health policy issues.
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