SE Valley Times

PHOENIX—Rep. Greg Stanton applauded the announcement of the first 10 prescription drugs selected for Medicare price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act—a process which will lower prescription drug costs for the more than 1.4 million Arizonans on Medicare.“These drugs are some of the most popular in the country, helping millions of seniors—but pharmaceutical companies have gotten away with price gouging at taxpayer expense for too long,” Stanton said. “Medicare negotiation is a hard-fought victory that I’ve been working towards for years, and it’s going to make a real difference for Arizonans’ pocketbooks.”The negotiations with participating drug companies will occur in 2023 and 2024, and any negotiated prices will become effective beginning January 1, 2026. Medicare will continue to negotiate 15 more pricey drugs for 2027, 15 more in 2028, and 20 more each year after that.The first ten drugs covered under Medicare Part D selected for drug price negotiation are:

• Eliquis (Prevention and treatment of blood clots)
• Jardiance (Diabetes; Heart failure)
• Xarelto (Prevention and treatment of blood clots; Reduction of risk for patients with coronary or peripheral artery disease)
• Januvia (Diabetes)
• Farxiga (Diabetes; Heart failure; Chronic kidney disease)
• Entresto (Heart failure)
• Enbrel (Rheumatoid arthritis; Psoriasis; Psoriatic arthritis)
• Imbruvica (Blood cancers)
• Stelara (Psoriasis; Psoriatic arthritis; Crohn’s disease; Ulcerative colitis)
• Fiasp, Fiasp FlexTouch, Fiasp PenFill, NovoLog, NovoLog FlexPen, NovoLog PenFill (Diabetes)

In addition to allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time, the IRA also capped the cost of insulin for Medicare Part D patients at $35 a month for certain covered insulin products starting last January. It will limit their out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 per year beginning in 2025 and instituted a new provision to impose penalties on drug companies that hike up prices in Medicare above the rate of inflation. And it makes eligible vaccines, including the shingles vaccine, free for seniors with Medicare Part D and expands cost-sharing assistance for low-income people with Medicare.

Original source can be found here.