Big pharma pushes Trump team to ease Medicare drug price negotiation rules

NEW YORK, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is pushing to revamp the new law that allows Medicare to negotiate prices for its costliest prescription drugs once president-elect Donald Trump is back in office, according to lobbyists, executives, analysts and healthcare policy experts.

Seven lobbyists and executives who work with top pharmaceutical and biotech companies told Reuters they are pushing to delay the timeline under which medications become eligible for price negotiations by four years for small molecule drugs, which are primarily pills and account for most medicines.

Two sources said the industry is already speaking directly with members of the Trump transition team.

The ability of Medicare for the first time to directly negotiate prices on selected medicines was part of the Inflation Reduction Act, considered one of the key achievements of the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden. Medicare covers 66 million Americans, mostly aged 65 and older.

Since the IRA was passed in 2022, drugmakers have complained about the terms of Medicare's negotiating powers, saying it would stifle innovation. The government says the drug price negotiations will save nearly $25 billion by 2031.

In particular, the industry has opposed the time frame for negotiation eligibility for most drugs. When drugs have no competition, the law allows the government to negotiate prices for complex biologic, or biotech, drugs after 13 years on the market, but after 9 years for drugs taken as pills and capsules.

Drug companies have said this will dissuade them from developing the medicines that are generally cheaper and easier to produce and more convenient for patients, and instead push them to prioritize researching biologics, which are most often given by infusion r...
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