Medicare negotiating drug prices will likely save the U.S. billions

Medicare negotiating drug prices will likely save the U.S. billions, study
says.
Beginning in 2026, Medicare will begin negotiating the price of 10 drugs
that cost the federal government the most money.
Prescription Medication Medicine Pill Tablets. Medicare will be able to
negotiate the costs of a handful of drugs beginning in 2026. A provision in
the Inflation Reduction Act that allows Medicare to negotiate prices on the
costliest prescription drugs each year will likely save the U.S. billions
of dollars — as long as the drug industry doesn’t interfere, according to a
study.Beginning in 2026, Medicare will begin negotiating the price of 10 drugs
that cost the federal government the most money, followed by 15 more drugs
in 2027, another 15 drugs in 2028, and another 20 drugs in each subsequent
year.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
estimated how much money the new policy would have saved the U.S. had it
been in effect from 2018 to 2020 — the most recent years for which data is
available on Medicare spending.

They identified 40 drugs that would have been selected by Medicare for drug
pricing negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act’s provision.Under the
policy, the negotiation process applies to medications that have been on
the market for a certain amount of time — nine years for drugs and 13 years
for biologics — and only if the medication doesn’t have a comparable
alternative, such as a generic