More drugs than ever will be subject to Medicare inflation rebates under the Inflation Reduction Act next quarter.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services revealed the 64 drugs that will have lower Part B coinsurance rates from July through September. The IRA, enacted in 2022, requires rebates to Medicare on certain drugs with prices rising faster than inflation.
The government has said it hopes the program, now in its sixth quarter, will discourage drugmakers from big price hikes. Next quarter’s list includes many of the same drugs as this cycle, including Pfizer’s Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), Novartis’ Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), Amgen’s Blincyto (blinatumomab), and Astellas and Pfizer’s Padcev (enfortumab vedotin).
HHS made an example of Padcev on Wednesday, noting that its price has risen faster than inflation every quarter since the rebate program began. The agency said a patient taking the cancer drug may have saved as much as $1,181 from April 2023 through March 2024, depending on their coverage. Padcev generated $341 million in first-quarter 2024 sales for Pfizer, its first full quarter in the pharma giant’s portfolio following the acquisition of Seagen.
New to the list are Bristol Myers Squibb and 2seventybio’s Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel), Bristol Myers’ Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel), Gilead’s Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Johnson & Johnson’s Rybrevant (amivantamab), among others. There were 41 drugs on this past quarter’s list.
The government has said it will invoice drugmakers for inflation rebates by fall 2025.
“Everyone should be able to afford their medication, and the Inflation Reduction Act continues to deliver on this goal to improve affordability,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a news release.