WASHINGTON (WBAP/KLIF News ) – President Joe Biden announced a major development in his push to make medications more affordable for Americans.
On Tuesday morning, Biden said the manufacturers of all of the first 10 prescription drugs targeted for Medicare’s first price negotiations have agreed to participate.
The development clears the way for talks that could lower their costs in coming years.
The White House said 9 million senior citizens and other Medicare beneficiaries paid more than $3.4 billion on these 10 drugs alone last year, which includes drugs like the blood thinner Eliquis.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the selected drug back in August for the negotiation process and said manufacturers had until Monday to agree to participate and submit manufacturer-specific data.
During that time, there was pushback from some pharmaceutical giants. Speaking at a forum held by the American Association of Retired Persons in August, drug price expert said threats from those companies that the new prescription laws outlines in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act would hamper production of future medicines were hollow.
“Drug companies are profit seeking entities, they’re here to make money. So if they have a product that will that make money it will come to market,” she said.
Copyright 2023. WBAP/KLIF News. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press also contributed.
