President Joe Biden said Democrats' efforts to take on Big Pharma in the Inflation Reduction Act is the reason why 10 Medicare drugs will see new price controls.
"We've been fighting Big Pharma for a long time," Biden said Tuesday in celebrating the Drug Price Negotiation Program announcement. "We're standing up to Big Pharma, and we're not going to back down."
The Medicare provision of the Inflation Reduction Act grants the health and human services secretary the authority to negotiate with drug companies a maximum fair price for Medicare Part D coverage of the most expensive medications without generic or biologic alternatives.
The 10 selected drugs, including Eliquis and Jardiance, among others, accounted for $50.5 billion in Medicare Part D spending between June 2022 and May 2023, or about 20% of total Part D gross covered prescription drug costs, according to HHS.
The first round of maximum fair prices will be finalized by September 2024 and go into effect on the market as of 2026.
Biden also explained that the Medicare negotiation is no different than what the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense are able to do for their medication provisions and that pharmaceutical companies were given a deal by not having to negotiate with Medicare directly for their prices.
Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser, told reporters at the daily press briefing that the provision is going to "make a real difference" by providing "more cost savings to American families."
When asked if the Biden-Harris administration is concerned that Republicans would roll back the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program if they won the election in 2024, Tanden responded by saying that the program is "hugely popular" and that "people will rise up against that type of thing" if Republicans try to "claw back" the measure.
The president's announcement, however, did not touch on how industry leaders are concerned that this will hinder innovation.
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"While the president gleefully celebrates announcing the first 10 drugs forced into his socialist price-setting scheme, Americans are already seeing fewer potentially lifesaving cures and treatments,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said.
"The partisan law’s sweeping price-setting program ignores economic realities, and its implementation process has already begun to erode new drug development, including for cancer therapies and rare disease medications," added Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.