Pallone Applauds Biden Administration's Announcement on Medicare Drug Price Negotiation

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement today after the Biden Administration announced the first ten drugs that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will negotiate lower prices for using its new authorities under the Inflation Reduction Act:

“This is a historic day for health care in America. For the first time in the Medicare program, we are going to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for America’s seniors. 

“Other nations around the world negotiate prescription drug prices and it is only fair that we do the same. Today’s announcement begins the process of Medicare negotiating lower prices on these ten drugs and making them more affordable for America’s seniors. It marks the end of a 20-year handout from Republicans in Congress to the pharmaceutical industry that prevented Medicare from negotiating prescription drug prices for seniors. 

“This announcement is part of Democrats’ ongoing effort to lower prescription drug prices and cap seniors’ Medicare Part D out-of-pocket spending. Seniors are already benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act’s monthly $35 cap on insulin and penalties to pharmaceutical companies for raising prices faster than inflation. Democrats are committed to reining in the excesses of the pharmaceutical industry and lowering prescription drug prices for the American people, and today’s announcement is a major step in that effort.”  

In 2019, Pallone first introduced H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which first passed on the House Floor in December 2019 and later served as the blueprint for the drug pricing provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

 Last month, Pallone introduced the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act, with Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal (D-MA) and Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA), which builds on the price negotiation policies passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill would expand the number of drug prices negotiated each year, make the Medicare lower prices available to all Americans who get their health insurance through work or on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, and expand the penalties to pharmaceutical companies for unfair price hikes to all Americans with health insurance.