The pharmaceutical lobby strongly opposed the Biden administration’s plan to directly negotiate drug prices for 10 medications with Medicare. PhRMA argued this will hurt innovation, but advocates note that drug companies make 76% more than needed for R&D. Eliquis, which costs Medicare over $16 billion, will be subject to negotiations. The policy was enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act, which PhRMA spent millions lobbying against. PhRMA sued over the negotiations, but the DOJ moved to dismiss the case. Advocates believe this defeat of Big Pharma will not be the last as negotiations may expand to over 100 drugs in the future, greatly helping seniors and people with disabilities access affordable medications.
Amazed at how the same people who defend a business model that depends on price inelasticities to extract the last dime for lifesaving meds somehow react with horror at the idea that the biggest negotiator of pharmaceutical prices in the U.S. has the gall to negotiate lower prices. The government isn’t ‘dictating’ anything. It is using its market power to drive the price down.
That is the vaunted free market at work. Anything else is just corporate socialism.
