The Biden administration secures an agreement to cut drug prices

The agreement includes medicines for, among other things, diabetes, heart failure and blood clots, Biden and Harris state in a joint statement.

They further say the deal will save older Americans about $1.5 billion, in addition to saving American taxpayers and the federal government about $6 billion in Medicare.

Important issue for Biden

However, the Biden administration does not say how big the price cut is or how much Medicare users will now have to pay for the drugs.

Over 67 million elderly and disabled Americans are covered by Medicare, which last year spent around $50 billion to cover the costs of the ten drugs in question.

Among them are the blood thinner Xarelto, as well as the diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia.

The agreement has been an important issue for Biden, who has worked to land it for a long time. In August last year, the US president promised that he would put the agreement in place, which is now being referred to as historic.

Tried Harris

Biden nevertheless chose to pay tribute to Harris, and pointed out that she helped push through the bill that opened the deal by using her decisive vote in the Senate.

– President Biden and I will never stop fighting for the health, well-being and economic stability of the American people, says Harris in the statement.

Biden and Harris will jointly present the agreement at an event in Maryland on Thursday. Earlier in August, Harris was confirmed as Biden’s replacement in the upcoming presidential election in November.

The event in Maryland will be their first public appearance together since welcoming American citizens home following the prisoner exchange with Russia at the start of August.