One Big Giveaway to Drug Companies Will Cost Us Billions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated estimate of the budgetary impact of a provision included in the Republican reconciliation bill passed last summer that will exclude and delay negotiations for more prescription drugs in the Medicare drug price negotiation program. The CBO found that the provision will cost the Federal government nearly $4 billion more than previously estimated, and could cost more than $10 billion. The increased estimate is a result of CBO considering negotiation delays for the cancer treatments Keytruda and Opdivo and the exclusion from negotiations entirely of the multiple myeloma treatment Darzalex, which were not included in its original estimate.
If these provisions had been in effect when the Medicare drug price negotiation began, Medicare would have been barred from negotiating lower prices for important treatments like cancer drugs Imbruvica, Calquence, and Pomalyst.
Public Citizen Access to Medicines Advocate, Steve Knievel, issued the following statement:
“The Medicare drug price negotiation law is the most significant policy to lower drug prices in a generation, but President Trump and congressional Republicans’ attacks on the program are undermining its ability to deliver savings to patients and taxpayers.
“Instead of transferring $10 billion from taxpayers and cancer patients to drug corporations that are already extremely profitable, President Trump and members of Congress must work to strengthen and expand Medicare drug price negotiations.
“Instead of gutting the law through bills like the ORPHAN Cures Act, EPIC Act and MINI Act so Big Pharma can block negotiations on blockbuster treatments, Congress should pass legislation to empower Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices on all costly medicines and allow all patients to access lower, negotiated prices, even if they don’t have Medicare.”