President Biden did what his predecessor only talked about: he signed a new law that finally forces prescription drug corporations to negotiate lower prices in Medicare after years of padding their profits by price-gouging consumers on everything from insulin to heart medicines. Medicare negotiations will save patients and taxpayers billions over the coming decade once the law is fully implemented. The new law also penalizes drug corporations for increasing prices faster than inflation and caps the annual out-of-pocket costs that seniors and people with disabilities pay at the pharmacy for the first time.
U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly’s decision today to dismiss AstraZeneca’s frivolous lawsuit is another big will for the Biden Administration and the millions of Medicare enrollees who will get lower drug costs under the new Medicare reforms passed in 2022. This is the third favorable ruling against legal challenges to Medicare negotiations and we remain confident that we’ll see a similar ruling in the upcoming hearing on March 7th in the New Jersey hearing during which Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson will present their oral arguments against Medicare negotiations.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most opaque industries in America, and they take advantage of this lack of transparency by setting ever-higher prices for lifesaving prescription drugs like insulin. But provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act are curtailing the exorbitant price-gouging strategies that the pharmaceutical industry uses to pump up their profit margins at the expense of seniors and people with disabilities who use Medicare.
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Continue reading “Pitchfork Economics: Medicare Drug Price Negotiations with Margarida Jorge”
After decades of fighting PhRMA’s lobbyists, patients, advocates and lawmakers scored a huge victory for lower drug prices with passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a new law that includes Medicare reforms that take on drug corporations’ price-gouging and make medicines more affordable for millions.
For the first time, Medicare isn’t just accepting whatever prices the drug corporations set for expensive and widely used drugs in Part D like Xareto and Eliquis–instead, the agency, newly empowered under the new Medicare negotiations law, will propose lower prices for ten of the most expensive drugs in Medicare Part D to kick off the negotiations process.
I have seen firsthand how affordable medicine can transform families and communities. I grew up in Richmond, one of four children. My family members and I have experienced many of the health conditions that come from the trauma of racism in this city and nation.
Statement from Margarida Jorge, head of Lower Drug Prices Now in response to implementation of the latest provision of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare reforms to lower drug prices for millions of seniors and people with disabilities:
