Many drugs have extremely high costs for Medicare beneficiaries. This year CMS has identified the first ten drugs that will be the subject of this round of drug price negotiations as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. These ten drugs account for roughly 20% of all Medicare Part D spending by beneficiaries. Medicare has been able to negotiate the costs associated with medical care for beneficiaries before now, but these costs did not previously include medications. These negotiated will go into effect at the beginning of 2026, below is a list of the ten drugs:
1. Enbrel
2. Entresto
3. Eliquis
4. Imbruvica
5. Farxiga
6. Januvia
7. Jardiance
8. Fiasp/Novalog
9. Xarelto
10. Stelara
Because of the current prices of these drugs, many Medicare beneficiaries have had to limit the extent of their use of these drugs or go without the drugs entirely due to their high costs. These ten drugs listed above are just the beginning of the medication price negotiations, in 2027 there will be a presumed 15 more drugs added to this list granted the drug manufacturers blocking of the negotiations is unsuccessful.
Angle of the drug manufacturers:
If these drug companies do not comply with these negotiations there will become subject to tax penalties. However, they can avoid these taxes by totally removing the drug from the Medicare market entirely. The drawback to them pulling the medication would be the morality of eliminating a lifesaving drug from the Medicare market, as well as lose a massive portion of their market share in this space. These drug companies are currently seeking legal advise on the situation, and argue that the fall in income as a result of the negotiations will hamper their ability to fund critical research and development of these drugs that is necessary in their production of new medical treatments and the constant fight against these ailments.
