The Biden administration on Tuesday announced that the makers of all 10 prescription drugs selected for Medicare price negotiations have signed agreements to participate in the program to negotiate cheaper prices.

The agreement to participate Medicare's price drug negotiation program, enacted under President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, all but assures lower prices for diabetes treatments, as well as drugs treating blood clots, heart and artery diseases and diseases treating inflamed tissue.

What You Need To Know

  • The Biden administration on Tuesday announced that the makers of all 10 prescription drugs selected for Medicare price negotiations have signed agreements to participate in the program to negotiate cheaper prices

  • The drugs involved in the deal include treatments for diabetes, blood clots prevention, heart failure, psoriatic arthritis and coronary artery disease

  • According to the White House, an estimated 9 million Medicare recipients spent more than $3.4 billion on these drugs in 2022 alone

  • The Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping health care, climate and tax reform bill, was passed in 2022 with just Democratic support in Congress

Manufacturers include Novo Nordisk for its Flasp and NovoLog families of diabetes treatment products; Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis blood clot prevention and treatment drug; Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance diabetes and heart failure treatment; and Janssen Pharms’ Xarelto, which treats blood clots and reduces risks for coronary artery disease patients.

According to the White House, an estimated 9 million Medicare recipients spent more than $3.4 billion out-of-pocket on these drugs in 2022 alone. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, nearly 30% of Americans struggle to afford their medications because of their costs.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: For many Americans, the cost of one drug is the difference between life and death, dignity, independence, hope and fear," Biden said in a video accompanying the announcement. "And that's why we'll continue to fight for lower health care costs. And we will not stop until we finish the job, you have my word on that."

The drugs selected were announced in August, with a Sunday deadline to notify the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that they were participating in negotiations, with a Monday deadline to submit manufacturer-specific data to the agency.

The Biden administration’s announcement comes less than a week after a federal court in the Southern District of Ohio denied a motion by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among other groups, seeking an injunction to block Medicare’s powers to negotiate drug prices.

The lawsuit argued that the Inflation Reduction Act, which empowers Medicare to negotiate, violates the First, Fifth and Eighth amendments to the Constitution. Those arguments, the court said, didn’t hold water.

Biden, in Tuesday's video, called the case "an attempt by Big Pharma and their allies to stop us from moving forward."

The Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping health care, climate and tax reform bill, was passed in 2022 with just Democratic support in Congress. In addition to the drug price negotiations, the measure includes a $35/month cap on insulin for Medicare enrollees, imposes a corporate minimum tax rate of 15% and makes the largest-ever investment to fight climate change.

"We're taking steps to participate in the negotiation program so we can give seniors the best possible deal," Biden said in the video. "Folks, for decades, drug companies in America made record profits while Big Pharma worked to block Medicare from being able to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. In fact, Americans now pay two to three times more than people in other countries for the exact same prescription drug made by the exact same company."

"So my administration finally took a step to change that last year when we passed the Inflation Reduction Act with zero Republican votes," the president continued. "Together with congressional Democrats, we lowered insulin prices to $35 and capped out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for Medicare recipients."