The Trump administration issued a final plan Tuesday for how it will carry out the third round of the Medicare drug price negotiations, pushing forward a Biden-era program despite ongoing opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.
The 381-page final guidance by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services outlines how the US government plans to set the prices of up to additional 15 drugs in the program. The negotiations for the third cycle are slated to begin in 2026 and prices will go into effect in 2028.
“CMS is working to lower healthcare and prescription drug costs for Americans while ensuring the negotiation process is open, fair, and responsive to changes in the market and patient needs,” Mehmet Oz, administrator for the CMS, said in a statement.
“We’ve listened to stakeholders, and their feedback helped us make the Negotiation Program more transparent, more workable for manufacturers, and more responsive to the needs of Medicare beneficiaries,” he said.
The program was created under former President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act and allows the US government to be in back-and-forth talks with manufacturers over drug prices covered under Medicare.
The pharmaceutical industry criticized the Trump administration’s draft guidance earlier this year, claiming it doubled down on Biden’s implementation plans.
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