PhRMA’s Opening Gambit: Limiting Medicare Price Setting To The IRA's Minimum Discount

CMS should adopt the minimum price reductions under the Inflation Reduction Act for most selected drugs in the early years of the Medicare price negotiation program, PhRMA urges and recommends the agency should retain that approach in the long-term for younger drugs, those targeting an unmet medical need or those representing therapeutic advances.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services does not have the expertise or time to create the complex program for setting drug prices in Medicare envisioned by the Inflation Reduction Act and so should default to setting prices at the minimum discount level established by the law for drugs less than 13 years old for “several years,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America argues in comments to the agency.

The voluminous comments, submitted on 14 April, represent one of the few opportunities industry has to weigh in on the Medicare price negotiation program and try to shape it. (Also...

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