Drug Manufacturers Agree to Negotiate with Biden Admin to Lower the Cost of Prescription Drugs

Congressman Schweikert, Ciscomani Opposed Price Negotiation

TUCSON —  The Biden administration announced today that the pharmaceutical manufacturers of all 10 drugs targeted under the Inflation Reduction Act’s provision allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices have agreed to participate in negotiations. 

Medicare negotiation will benefit up to 165,000 Arizonans, and is an incredibly popular provision of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Congressman David Schweikert voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and Juan Ciscomani vocally opposed the law last year despite the law’s key provision to empower Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices to help lower costs for Arizonans. Schweikert and Ciscomani are both current members of the Republican Study Committee, which proposed repealing Medicare’s new power to negotiate lower prices in the budget plan it released this summer.

According to CNN:

“The drugmakers – which include Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen division, Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca, among others – will now spend months in talks with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to determine maximum fair prices for their products.”

“Drug price negotiation is a no-brainer, but Congressman Schweikert and Ciscomani opposed it, despite the fact that it will lower costs for so many Arizonans”, said Andrea Moreno, Executive Director of Honest Arizona. “It’s time for Schweikert and Ciscomani to stop looking out for pharmaceutical giants and start looking out for the people they represent.”

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