The Biden administration announced Thursday successful negotiations with major pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of 10 different drugs for people on Medicare Part D starting January 1, 2026. Consumers are expected to save $1.5 billion when the new prices go into effect, with the Medicare program saving roughly $6 billion, according to a press release from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The 10 drugs that were negotiated are some of the most common and expensive on the market, used to treat heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, among other diseases. The list prices for the 10 drugs had increased as much as 55% from 2018 to 2023, according to HHS.
Congress passed a prescription drug bill in 2003 that banned Medicare from negotiating drug prices. The result, as anyone who buys medicines in the U.S. can tell you, was to drastically raise prices for everyone over the span of two decades. Drug companies could simply charge whatever they wanted, and consumers had to either pay up or go without their often life-saving drugs.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Biden’s big legislative win, changed all that. At least it will be changing things 10 or 15 drugs at a time. Medicare will select up to 15 more drugs to negotiate by February 1, 2025, according to HHS, and those new prices will come into effect in 2027. An additional 15 drugs will be selected the following year, and then 20 more drugs will be negotiated, as outlined in the schedule put out by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Roughly 1 in 7 older Americans report struggling to pay for prescription medications, but the drug companies have been fighting tooth and nail against the Inflation Reduction Act’s negotiation provisions. Major drug lobby groups sued the U.S. government to stop the negotiations, but those lawsuits have thus far been tossed out.
The 10 drugs that will see lower prices for Medicare Part D patients starting in 2026:
- Eliquis
- Jardiance
- Xarelto
- Januvia
- Farxiga
- Entresto
- Enbrel
- Imbruvica
- Stelara
- Fiasp; Fiasp FlexTouch; Fiasp PenFill; NovoLog; NovoLog FlexPen; NovoLog PenFill
“CMS negotiated in good faith on behalf of the millions of people who rely on these 10 drugs for their health and well-being. The new negotiated prices will bring much needed financial relief, affordability, and access,” Meena Seshamani, CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare, said in a press release.
“Throughout the process, we remained true to our commitment to be thoughtful and transparent, meeting publicly with patients, providers, health plans, pharmacies, drug companies and others to help inform the process,” Seshamani continued. “We will continue to do so for future cycles. Our team is actively working on the next cycle of negotiations where we will combine what we have learned from this first cycle and apply it in negotiating prices for the next round of up to 15 selected drugs.”
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