Pharmaceutical companies are strategizing how to muzzle Medicare's future power to negotiate drug prices, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 20.
One of the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act — a $739 billion package signed into law by President Joe Biden on Aug. 16 — will allow Medicare, the nation's largest buyer of prescription drugs, to haggle over how much it pays for some medications starting in 2026.
"In all the years I've followed the drug industry, and that's about 50 years, this is the first time they ever suffered a legislative defeat in Congress," Ira Loss, a senior health analyst at research firm Washington Analysis, told the Journal.
Drugmakers are planning to stifle the negotiation provision.
The Inflation Reduction Act specifies that the 10 drugs up for potential negotiation must be on the market for nine years and not have a generic option, meaning drugmakers can skirt the law by offering a generic within the next four years. Or they can implement "product hopping," which describes when a product is discontinued, slightly adjusted and then sold again.
Drug companies are lobbying for legislation to counter the Inflation Reduction Act's measures, people familiar with the efforts told the Journal. Those ideas include combating the nine-year rule, exempting medications that treat more than one rare disease and sparing some drugs from the law if they are a company's major share of profits.
Two trade groups told the Journal the law will hurt new drug research opportunities and does not do enough for lowering patients' costs.