WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of older Americans could find some outpatient drug treatments cheaper starting early next year. Biden administration It was announced on Thursday.
The White House released the following list: 48 types of medicine Prices for everything from chemotherapy to growth hormone used to treat endocrine disorders have risen faster than inflation this year. under the new law, drug companies would have to pay rebates to the federal government for these price increases. The money will be used to lower the prices Medicare enrollees pay for drugs early next year.
President Joe Biden spoke Thursday at a National Institutes of Health lab in Bethesda, Maryland, and said, “For years, big drug companies have been talking about just how high and how quickly they can raise drug prices. There were no checks carried out.” “Let's call it what it is. It's just a rip-off. They're looting Medicare. They're ripping off the American people. We're fighting back now.”
This is the first time drug companies have had to pay fines for outpatient drug treatment under the Inflation Control Act passed by Congress last year. The rebates represent savings (from a minimum of $1 to a maximum of $2,700) on medications that the White House estimates are used by 750,000 older Americans each year.
There are various types of drugs on the government list. They include generic drugs, drugs taken orally or by injection, and are used to treat a variety of disorders and illnesses, according to a review of the agency's list by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
But the White House says all drugs have seen significant price increases this year, with many increasing by nearly 20%.
The price reduction applies only to patients who receive the drug through Medicare Part B, the government's outpatient health insurance plan. But Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement Thursday that rebates are “an important tool to prevent excessive price increases.”
Stephen Uble, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association of America, also known as PhRMA, said only a small number of drugs met the criteria for penalties.
“That's only a fraction of the total effective medicines,” he says.
In preparation for re-election in 2024, the Biden administration is implementing a number of initiatives to encourage pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices. Last week, the White House announced it was considering new, aggressive and unprecedented tactics. strip patents on some drugs whose prices are unaffordable to most Americans.
“No. We've disrupted Big Pharma again,” says the White House. Post on social media platform Xformerly on Twitter, last week, just hours after the announcement.
The president plans to make pushing for lower drug prices a central theme of his re-election pitch to Americans.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Agency also announced report This will guide the first-ever negotiation process with drug companies over the prices of Medicare's 10 most expensive drugs. New prices for these drugs will be negotiated by HHS during next year's presidential campaign.
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This article was published by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, not Washington, DC.
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Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed.
