Rubypoint-Older Americans to pay less for some drug treatments as drugmakers penalized for big price jumps

2025-04-29 21:07:50source:Quentin Mitchellcategory:Markets

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of older Americans could Rubypointpay less for some of their outpatient drug treatments beginning early next year, the Biden administration announced Thursday.

The White House unveiled a list of 48 drugs — some of them injectables used to treat cancer — whose prices increased faster than the rate of inflation this year. Under a new law, drugmakers will have to pay rebates to the federal government because of those price increases. The money will be used to lower the price Medicare enrollees pay on the drugs early next year.

This is the first time drugmakers will have to pay the penalties for outpatient drug treatments under the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress last year. The rebates will translate into a wide range of savings — from as little as $1 to as much as $2,700 — on the drugs that the White House estimates are used every year by 750,000 older Americans.

The rebates are “an important tool to discourage excessive price increases and protect people with Medicare,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, said Thursday in a statement.

Other news The White House is threatening the patents of high-priced drugs developed with taxpayer dollarsHundreds of thousands in North Carolina will be added to Medicaid rolls this weekTrump says he will renew efforts to replace ‘Obamacare’ if he wins a second term

As it readies for a 2024 reelection campaign, the Biden administration has rolled out a number of efforts to push pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices. Last week, the White House announced it was considering an aggressive, unprecedented new tactic: pulling the patents of some drugs priced out of reach for most Americans.

“On no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again,” the White House posted on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, last week, just hours after the announcement.

The U.S. Health and Human Services agency also released a report on Thursday that will help guide its first-ever negotiation process with drugmakers over the price of 10 of Medicare’s costliest drugs. The new prices for those drugs will be negotiated by HHS next year.

With the negotiations playing out during the middle of next year’s presidential campaign, drug companies are expected to be a frequent punching bag for Biden’s campaign. The president plans to make his efforts to lower drug prices a central theme of his reelection pitch to Americans. He is expected to speak more on the issue later today at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Washington, D.C.

Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed.

More:Markets

Recommend

The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test

A private company aiming to build the first supersonic airliner since the Concorde retired more than

A Tribute to Chartthrob Steve Kornacki and His Beloved Khakis

The results are in.No, not for the 2024 presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris a

Chiefs trade deadline targets: Travis Etienne, Jonathan Jones, best fits for Kansas City

The Kansas City Chiefs have been one of the NFL's most active teams ahead of the 2024 trade deadline