Washington, DC – Today, Protect Our Care is releasing profiles of the ten drugs whose prices will be lowered as Medicare negotiates with drug companies. The new program created by the Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for some of the highest-costing prescription drugs on the market used to treat conditions like cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders – conditions that disproportionately impact women, communities of color, and people in rural areas. The profiles show millions of people rely on these drugs, costing patients and taxpayers billions while the drug companies that manufacture them rake in sky-high profits, raise prices on patients, and reward shareholders and lobbyists. These profiles come ahead of CMS sending initial offers of a maximum fair price for the selected drugs to each company on February 1, beginning the negotiation period.
Read the profiles here:
For the first round of drugs undergoing negotiation, Americans pay up to eight times more than in other countries. As a result, Americans across the country are skipping or cutting doses of critical life-saving medications. One in five adults report they have not filled a prescription because of the cost, while one in ten say they have cut or skipped doses of medicine in the last year. In the coming years, millions of people will benefit from lower drug prices negotiated through Medicare.
The companies who manufacture the drugs selected for negotiation are suing the federal government to stop Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices for seniors in a blatant effort to protect their massive profits. MAGA Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s prescription drug provisions and revoke the savings for millions. Read more on the GOP plan to hike prescription drug prices here.
“Prescription drugs cannot work if people cannot afford to take them,” said Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care. “For far too long, Americans have been forced to skip doses and choose between their health and putting food on the table. President Biden and Democrats in Congress stood up to big drug companies and won a decades-long battle to lower the cost of prescription drugs for millions of Americans and, this week, the formal negotiations begin. It is reprehensible that big drug companies and MAGA Republicans continue to put profits over people as they work to block negotiations in court and gut the program in Congress.”