Joe Biden’s Government announced this Friday a new round of prescription drugs that will be eligible for public insurance Medicare to negotiate their prices with the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture them.
The list includes Ozempicthe drug against diabetes and insulin resistance that has also been shown to be useful for weight loss. The drug has been criticized for its high cost, prompting calls for it to be lowered in price and also opening the door to some more affordable alternatives.
The total list of medicines for price negotiation includes 15 medicines, a number greater than the 10 that were subject to negotiation last year.
The list is the first step in the negotiations that are planned for the following months between Medicare and the pharmaceutical companies, so that the new agreed prices enter effective from 2027.
However, it is uncertain whether the process will continue with the incoming Donald Trump Administration, as there is no clarity on whether the Republican supports the cost reduction plan.
The list of new 15 medicines:
- Ozempic; Rybelsus and Wegovy
- Trelegy Elliptto treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Xtandifor prostate cancer
- Pomalystfor specific cases of myeloma, a type of skin cancer
- Ibrancetherapy for some types of breast cancer
- Ofevfor conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis
- Linzessfor irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Calquencefor people with certain types of lymphoma or leukemia
- Austedo and Austedo XRfor topics such as tardive dyskinesia
- Breo Elliptafor COPD
- Tradjentafor people with type 2 diabetes
- Xifaxanfor IBS and traveler’s diarrhea
- Vraylarfor some types of bipolar disorder and for major depression
- Janumet and Janumet XRto help reduce glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes
- Otezla, for psoriasis
Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at the medical research group KFF, said it is especially important this year for the government to achieve price cuts.
KFF just found in an analysis published this Friday that more than half of the American public says it considers expanding the number of drugs a priority. Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the policy program for Medicare at the medical research group KFF, said it is especially important this year that the Government achieves price cuts.
Medicines like Ozempic are in high demand. Although Medicare is currently not allowed to cover the costs of these drugs for weight loss purposeshas begun to include prescriptions for these medications in its coverage for those at risk of hypertension or diabetes. Given the prices of Ozempic and similar products, it is expected that the cost to taxpayers of funds allocated for the public health program could increase.
So “heavy-handed price negotiations could save Medicare billions of dollars in the coming years,” Cubanski says.
After this Friday’s announcement, pharmaceutical companies are given a period of just over a month to access to sit down to negotiate; Otherwise, tax fines may be imposed that can only be avoided if the industry withdraws these drugs from Medicare, which would cause it to lose a considerable sector of the market.
And according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, some 5.3 million people in the United States they used drugs like Ozempic between November 1, 2023 and October 1, 2024.
In a statement from Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic and Wegovy, the pharmaceutical company said that it is against patent prices being negotiated, but that it will work with the incoming Administration so that “there are solutions for patients.”
In total, the 15 drugs selected this Friday for price negotiations represent a cost to Medicare of $41 billion, or 14% of its type D spending, which covers prescription drugs that people take on their own instead of that are administered in clinics, as is the case with chemotherapy.
“We have an opportunity to negotiate something better for the American people,” Xavier Becerra, who will step down as Secretary of Health and Human Services next Tuesday, said in announcing the drugs. “This is extremely important, because some people have to cut their pills to only take half or skip some doses so that what they were able to buy lasts longer.”
Last year, in a similar process, Medicare managed to agree to reductions by 2026 in the prices of 10 especially expensive drugs at the time, such as the anticoagulant Eliquis and the blood cancer treatment Imbruvica.
“The implications (of negotiating) are enormous for those with Medicare, for those with plans that cover type D drugs, and for taxpayers in general because This could greatly expand the use that Medicare beneficiaries can give” to drugs like Ozempic, says Stacie Dusetzina, a public health professor at Vanderbilt University.