President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced on Tuesday that they are working together to expand the federal government’s ability to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies.
The leading Democrats wrote in an opinion piece published by USA Today that they are hoping to pass legislation to expand the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program to 50 drugs per year, a significant increase from the current 10.
“There is no rational reason why Americans, for decades, have been forced to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for the prescription drugs they need,” wrote Biden and Sanders, who is the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
The Drug Price Negotiation Program is arguably Biden’s largest healthcare policy achievement, with lowering healthcare costs being a central pillar of his reelection campaign.
As written, the Inflation Reduction Act allows the secretary of health and human services to negotiate drug prices for the 10 most expensive drugs under Medicare Part D.
The drugs selected for the 2023 negotiation cycle accounted for $50.5 billion in Medicare Part D spending between June 2022 and May 2023, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s roughly 20% of the total gross Medicare Part D-covered prescription drug costs.
In their op-ed, Biden and Sanders alluded to not only increasing the number of drugs eligible for the negotiation but also expanding negotiation authority to non-Medicare patients.
“At a time when many Americans are dealing with the myriads of chronic illnesses, no one in our country should be forced to pay over $2,000 a year for the prescription drugs they need, not just seniors,” the Democrats wrote.
Sanders and Biden explicitly blasted Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, makers of breakthrough weight loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively.
Novo’s Ozempic and Lilly’s Mounjaro, which are Type 2 diabetes medications that are the same chemical compound as Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively, are covered by Medicare for diabetes management, but federal law prohibits the spending of Medicare funds on drugs solely for weight loss.
Bipartisan legislation with support from the House and Senate is moving through Congress to change that legislation to cover weight loss drugs under Medicare Part D, in part due to the remarkable success of Wegovy and Zepbound to mitigate cardiovascular disease.
If this were to pass, Wegovy and Zepbound could be made eligible for the Drug Price Negotiation Program.
Biden and Sanders, however, issued a threat against Novo and Lilly if they and other companies did not start to lower their drug prices voluntarily.
“If Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them,” Biden and Sanders wrote. “Novo Nordisk must substantially reduce the price of Ozempic and Wegovy.”
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Sanders has been a vocal critic of Novo Nordisk in recent months, using his committee position to bring further congressional scrutiny to the company.
A Senate HELP hearing at which the Novo president and executive vice president of North American operations was scheduled for mid-June pending a subpoena for the pharmaceutical company’s leaders to testify, but the hearing was canceled.
