White House Negotiates Price Cuts on 10 of Medicare’s Most Expensive Drugs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration announced Thursday that Medicare recipients will see significant reductions in the cost of 10 of the program’s most expensive and widely used drugs, following a series of negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.

The discounts, which range from 38% to 79% off the list prices, are set to take effect in 2026.

These price cuts, a key part of the administration’s efforts to reduce healthcare costs, are expected to save taxpayers $6 billion and Medicare enrollees as much as $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses. The newly negotiated prices will impact drugs used to manage conditions such as diabetes, blood cancers, heart failure, and blood clots.

The drugs affected by the price reductions include:

• Eliquis and Xarelto, both blood thinners used to prevent and treat blood clots
• Jardiance and Januvia, medications for managing diabetes
• Farxiga, which is also used for heart failure and chronic kidney disease
• Entresto, used to treat heart failure
• Enbrel and Stelara, used for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis
• Imbruvica, a treatment for blood cancers
• NovoLog and related insulin products

“For years, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for medications or putting food on the table,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “But we fought back — and won.”

The announcement is being hailed as a landmark achievement for the Medicare program, which has provided healthcare coverage to more than 67 million older and disabled Americans but was previously barred from negotiating drug prices.

The negotiations, made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act passed with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote, mark a shift in the government’s approach to controlling prescription drug costs.

Vice President Harris is expected to highlight this achievement as part of her presidential campaign, showing the administration’s success in taking on “Big Pharma” and reducing costs for seniors. She is scheduled to join President Biden later on Thursday to formally announce the new drug prices.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to negotiate prices for another 15 drugs next year, with the potential to further expand these savings. This initiative is part of a broader strategy by the Biden administration to reduce healthcare costs, which also includes capping insulin prices and eliminating out-of-pocket costs for certain vaccines under Medicare.