In an update provided by the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) has named the first ten drugs that will be subject to Medicare price negotiation under the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). As a reminder to our readers, the IRA aims to regulate the cost of prescription drugs and thereby reduce inflation.
As part of the transparency measures prescribed by the IRA, the HHS will be organizing listening sessions on drug price negotiations. These sessions will be live streamed and open to the public and are slated to take place this fall. A significant move that indicates the government’s commitment to tackling the high cost of prescription drugs, while ensuring that all discussions on the topic are held in the open, involving public input.
Sadly, the complete list of the first ten drugs remains unclear at this point. However, the release of this list, the first of its kind, will undoubtedly define a vital course for subsequent negotiations concerning drug price regulations.
This update is a follow-up to two previous alerts that provided a detailed overview of the IRA’s prescription drug provisions and the CMS’s (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) enthusiastic approach to Medicare drug negotiations.
You can read the full initiative update here.