The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled the first 10 prescription drugs that will be subject to price negotiations between manufacturers and Medicare, kicking off a controversial process that aims to make costly medications more affordable for older Americans.

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in a party-line vote last year, gave Medicare the power to directly hash out drug prices with manufacturers for the first time in the federal program’s nearly 60-year history. The agreed-upon prices for the first round of drugs are scheduled to go into effect in 2026.

  • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It’s absurd that they were forbidden from negotiating in the first place. It was basically a blank check to drug companies.

  • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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    10 months ago

    Here are the 10 drugs subject to the initial talks this year:

    • Eliquis, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is used to prevent blood clotting to reduce the risk of stroke.
    • Jardiance, made by Boehringer Ingelheim, is used to lower blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes.
    • Xarelto, made by Johnson & Johnson, is used to prevent blood clotting to reduce the risk of stroke.
    • Januvia, made by Merck, is used to lower blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes.
    • Farxiga, made by AstraZeneca, is used to treat type 2 diabetes.
    • Entresto, made by Novartis, is used to treat certain types of heart failure.
    • Enbrel, made by Amgen, is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
    • Imbruvica, made by AbbVie, is used to treat different types of blood cancers.
    • Stelara, made by Janssen, is used to treat Crohn’s disease.
    • Fiasp and NovoLog, insulins made by Novo Nordisk.
    • bioemerl@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      The most curious thing here is that they’re all from different companies. I think this is a big trial run.

      • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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        10 months ago

        I think you’re right:

        “I think it’s incredibly important to keep in mind that the negotiation process is cumulative,” said Leigh Purvis, a prescription drug policy principal with AARP Public Policy Institute. “We could have as many as 60 drugs negotiated by 2029.

  • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    It’s always whatever it takes to help the old. The usa was made for and will die by the hands of ‘the greatest generation’ aka the greediest generation

    All drug prices should be heavily regulated and capped, not just the ones old people need.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Boomers will go down in history of the reason the United States goes straight from richest country in the world to a shit hole dictatorship.

    • FlowVoid@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      The Greatest Generation consists of people who are over 96 years old. They lived through the Great Depression and fought the original Nazis, hence the name. And they are nearly all dead.

      This is not for them, this is for their children who are now in their 60s and 70s, the Boomers.

      • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Which generation accounts for all the 80 year olds in congress? They’re mysteriously missing from your ranges

        • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Anyone who is 89 or younger was 9 when wwii ended. They did not fight in wwii. You are talking about some combination of silent generation and baby boomers.

          Most if the US government is baby boomers or gen x. Only a handful are over 77

        • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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          10 months ago

          Baby boomers are post WWII when all the soldiers came home so roughly 1945 on which would put the elder boomers at 78 and octogenarians in “the greatest generation.”

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      It’s always whatever it takes to help the old

      3 of them are diabetes medicine. That is not exclusively an “old person’s disease”

      4 others are for heart disease. Again, not exclusively a geriatric issue.

      Given the obesity issues that America has in abundance, I would suggest these drugs are well chosen to help a signifigant portion of the population.

      • Novman@feddit.it
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        10 months ago

        America is also the country that ( i don’t know why , i’m not american ) glorify obesity ( aka body shaming ) and you are so upset when someone give an alternative opinion. I mean, land of free speech, but a massive groupthink. I mean, in europe no one give a shit for things that are really controversial and no one loses his job.