Medicare announces lower prices on 10 common, high-cost drugs

( NBC )

The Biden administration said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with drugmakers to lower prices on the 10 costliest prescription drugs under Medicare.

It's part of the federal government's first-ever drug pricing negotiations, a cost reduction it claims could help ease the financial burden on the estimated 1 in 7 older adults in the U.S. struggling to pay for their medications.

Here are the negotiated prices for the drugs, based on a 30-day supply:

• Eliquis, a blood thinner from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer: $231 negotiated price, down from $521 list price.

• Xarelto, a blood thinner from Johnson & Johnson; $197 negotiated price, down from $517 list price.

• Januvia, a diabetes drug from Merck: $113 negotiated price, down from $527 list price.

• Jardiance, a diabetes drug from Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly: $197 negotiated price, down from $573 list price.

• Enbrel, a rheumatoid arthritis drug from Amgen: $2,355 negotiated price, down from $7,106 list price.

• Imbruvica, a drug for blood cancers from AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson: $9,319 negotiated price, down from $14,934 list price.

• Farxiga, a drug for diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease from AstraZeneca: $178 negotiated price, down from $556 list price.

• Entresto, a heart failure drug from Novartis: $295 negotiated price, down from $628 list price.

• Stelara, a drug for psoriasis and Crohn’s disease from J&J: $4,695 negotiated price, down from $13,836 list price.

• Fiasp and NovoLog, diabetes drugs from Novo Nordisk: $119 negotiated price, down from $495 list price.

The new negotiated prices were compared to the 2023 list prices of the drugs.

It's important to note that these numbers do not represent a direct comparison between the new negotiated prices and what Medicare and enrollees would have originally paid, said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The list price is the full retail price of a medication and doesn't include any discounts or rebates a drug company may have offered.

Still, Dusetzina said, these are "pretty big discounts."

"I think that it shows that they're taking these negotiations very seriously and they're trying to get much lower prices," she said.

The lower prices are the result of months of heated negotiations between the federal government and drugmakers over the pricey medications.

The prices won't take effect until 2026, but the measure is a landmark for Medicare. The federal government has never been able to directly haggle with drugmakers over the prices of their prescription drugs.

“It is a historic moment,” White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said on a call with reporters Wednesday night. “Millions of seniors and others on Medicare will soon see their drug costs go down on some of the most common and expensive drugs that treat heart disease, cancer, diabetes, blood costs and more.”

Medicare provides health insurance coverage to more than 65 million people in the U.S.

On Wednesday's call, administration officials said the new negotiated prices are projected to save Medicare enrollees $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in the first year.

The negotiations — as mandated under the Inflation Reduction Act — began in earnest in January, when Medicare presented its opening prices to drugmakers.

The $1.5 billion is in addition to the savings from other provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, which include a $35 monthly cap on the out-of-pocket cost of insulin and an annual cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, officials said.

Officials said the negotiations are also expected to save Medicare $6 billion in the first year.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra described the negotiations as "intense" Wednesday.

"I had the privilege to work closely with our HHS team to oversee the negotiations," Becerra said. "It took both sides to reach a good deal."

Drugmakers fight lowered prices

The federal government will have until March 2025 to publish an explanation of how it reached the negotiated prices. If a drugmaker refused to negotiate, they faced a tax penalty, which could be lifted if the drugmaker chose to withdraw their drug from the Medicare program.

All of the drugmakers subject to negotiations have been asked for comment.