US Democrats Introduce Bill to Expand Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiations

A group of 21 US Democrats introduced a new bill that seeks to strengthen the upcoming Medicare pricing negotiations with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) instantiated by the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill, if passed, would shorten the timeframe for drug pricing negotiations to begin to 5 years, a significant departure from the 9 years currently established for small molecule drugs and the 13 years set for biologics.

According to Zachary Brennan, “The new bill would also lower Medicare Part B drug prices through negotiation two years earlier than under current law, and increase the overall number of drugs that HHS can negotiate starting in its first year, which is 2026.”

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(Source: Endpoints News, April 25^th, 2023)