The extent of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program’s ability was unveiled Thursday after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the final maximum fair prices they agreed on with drugmakers, and figures suggest success.
The six-month negotiation process came to close Aug. 1, and the federal government has been eager to share the results.
Discounts range from 38 percent to 79 percent, but these are based on the list prices that don’t include negotiated discounts and rebates. As the CMS does not disclose the net price that it pays for drugs, it’s difficult to gauge just how much in actual out-of-pocket savings were achieved.
CMS Deputy Administrator Meena Seshamani told The Hill that negotiations yielded “a better deal today with these prices, above and beyond what rebates and discounts already exist in the Medicare Part D program.”
According to Stacy Sanders, chief competition officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, each negotiation was drug specific.
“So for each drug, there was a negotiation specific to that drug, specific to its clinical benefit and the other factors that Congress required us to consider as part of the negotiations,” Sanders said. “In every case, the department has delivered real savings, and that is demonstrated in the range of savings that we have secured off of list price that will translate into out of pocket savings for people with Medicare.”
Here are the maximum fair prices reached through the first round of Medicare negotiation:
Januvia
Negotiated price: $113.00
List price: $527.00
Discount: 79 percent
NovoLog
Negotiated price: $119
List price: $495
Discount: 76 percent
Farxiga
Negotiated price: $178.50
List price: $556
Discount: 68 percent
Enbrel
Negotiated price: $2,355
List price: $7,106
Discount: 67 percent
Jardiance
Negotiated price: $197
List price: $573
Discount: 66 percent
Stelara
Negotiated price: $4,695
List price: $13,836
Discount: 66 percent
Xarelto
Negotiated price: $197
List price: $517
Discount: 62 percent
Eliquis
Negotiated price: $231
List price: $521
Discount: 56 percent
Entresto
Negotiated price: $295
List price: $628
Discount: 53 percent
Imbruvica
Negotiated price: $9,319
List price: $14,934
Discount: 38 percent