2023-08-01 03:00:08
The confrontation promises to be fierce. A year after the promulgation of the American law on the reduction of inflation (Inflation Reduction Act), which signed a victory of the democrats of the Congress on the pharmaceutical industry, the laboratories do not take off. Quite the contrary. While the government is preparing to initiate the reform of its health insurance program, intended to lower the cost of treatment for its policyholders, Big Pharma is stepping up their response.
At the heart of this offensive: the new power to negotiate prices on the most expensive prescription drugs in Medicare, the federal health insurance system for people over 65, which covers some 64 million Americans. Adopted as part of the law on the reduction of inflation, voted in 2022, this measure, aimed at reducing government health expenditure, had the effect of an explosion among pharmaceutical manufacturers. It must be said that the change is unprecedented. Because, unlike in Europe, where States have long regulated the prices of health products, laboratories have until now enjoyed, on American soil, complete freedom in setting treatment prices. .
But, the 1is September, things will change. On this date, the government will unveil the list of the first ten drugs subject to the very first price negotiations, for which the new prices will apply from 2026. The manufacturers concerned will then have one month to agree to start discussions. In the event of refusal, they will be subjected to very heavy pecuniary penalties, unless they withdraw their products from the Medicare program and forego, at the same time, juicy profits. In fact, Medicare prescription drug spending reached $378 billion (342 billion euros) in 2021.
Judicial assaults
The threat has certainly not escaped the laboratories. After failing to bring down the measure during the vote in Congress, they have since set about influencing the terms of its application with public decision-makers, arguing that a drop in prices, by reducing their profits, would jeopardize funding research and development of new drugs. The lament hardly moved. Deaf to these arguments, the Ministry of Health persisted, publishing, in mid-March, a first version of the terms of application of the reform, together with a detailed timetable for its implementation.
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