Biden administration to impose inflation penalties on dozens of drugs | 15 December, 2023

The Biden administration said on Thursday it had identified 48 drugs in the Medicare program whose prices rose quicker than inflation during the fourth quarter of the year and may require their makers to pay rebates.

President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a provision to penalize drugmakers who work with Medicare, a government program for people aged 65 and older or who are disabled.

The 48 drugs it identified fall under Medicare Part B, which covers treatments administered at a health facility. Medicare recipients could benefit by a reduction in their co-insurance payment for any of the drugs by $1 to $2,786 per average dose, according to a government statement.

The president, in remarks at the National Institutes of Health, said big pharmaceutical companies, in the year before the law was passed, "jacked up" prices nearly four times faster than inflation went up.

(Source: Reuters)