Trump Administration Must Negotiate Steep Price Reductions on Selected Drugs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the 15 drugs it has selected for the second year of Medicare price negotiation, which was passed into law by congressional Democrats and President Biden in 2022.
The list of drugs selected for price negotiation includes semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, and used to control blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes, reduce the risk of major cardiac events and promote weight loss.
Last year, Public Citizen petitioned the Biden Administration to authorize competitors to produce generic semaglutide through government use licensing. In December, Public Citizen sent a letter to DOGE heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outlining how the government could save hundreds of billions of dollars while improving patient health and access to medicines through licensing competition on semaglutide and other anti-obesity medications and effectively implementing and expanding Medicare drug price negotiation and inflation rebate programs.
Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines advocate, Steve Knievel says it’s time for President-elect Trump to demonstrate his much touted deal-making skills to ensure Medicare enrollees get access to their medications at fair prices.
“President Biden and congressional Democrats made generational progress in the fight to lower drug prices and make medicines affordable by passing into law, enacting and defending the Medicare price negotiation and inflation rebate programs,” said Knievel. “Now it will be contingent on the Trump Administration to defend and implement the law, including by effectively negotiating prices of the 15 drugs announced today. If President-elect Trump is as good at making deals as he claims, then his administration will negotiate deep discounts on these drugs to save patients and taxpayers billions of dollars.”