Activists protest the price of prescription drug costs in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building in Washington, D.
C., on Oct. 6, 2022.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Good afternoon! The first round of the Biden administration's Medicare drug price negotiations is nearly finished, with two major deadlines approaching. President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act gave Medicare the power to directly hash out drug prices with manufacturers for the first time in the federal program's nearly six-decade history.
That process aims to make expensive medications more affordable for older Americans, but the pharmaceutical industry argues that it is a threat to their revenue, profits and drug innovation. The government and manufacturers have been in talks since February, when Medicare sent its initial price offer for each of the 10 medications selected almost a year ago. That includes diabetes treatments from Merck , AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim and blood thinners from Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb , among other drugs.
The negotiation period officially ends next Thursday. Medicare will publish the final agreed-upon prices for the medications by the beginning of September, though the exact timing is still unclear. Those prices will go into effect in 2026.
Both the government and drugmakers have largely remained tight-lipped about .