IRA negotiations will save Medicare $6 billion

The negotiations are over for the first 10 drugs that will be subject to price controls under the Joe Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Officials say the new prices, which range from 38–79% of 2023 prices and come into effect in 2026, will save Medicare, a US federal insurance system, $6 billion and Medicare enrollees $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in that first year. Pharmaceutical companies decried the law , saying that it would put price controls on drugs for the first time in US history and that innovation would ultimately suffer, as less money would be available to fund the discovery of new drugs. But a recent study led by Fred D. Ledley of the Center for Integration of Science and Industry at Bentley University found that the IRA “could have little or no impact on the number of drug approvals” ( Soc. Clin. Trials 2024, DOI: 10.1177/17407745241259112