this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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Politics

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The pharmaceutical lobby strongly opposed the Biden administration's plan to directly negotiate drug prices for 10 medications with Medicare. PhRMA argued this will hurt innovation, but advocates note that drug companies make 76% more than needed for R&D. Eliquis, which costs Medicare over $16 billion, will be subject to negotiations. The policy was enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act, which PhRMA spent millions lobbying against. PhRMA sued over the negotiations, but the DOJ moved to dismiss the case. Advocates believe this defeat of Big Pharma will not be the last as negotiations may expand to over 100 drugs in the future, greatly helping seniors and people with disabilities access affordable medications.

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[–] argv_minus_one 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

PhRMA argued this will hurt innovation

Hmph. That would require there to be innovation to hurt.

[–] LoamImprovement 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if there were, so what? Let innovation be hurt. People are dying as it is.

[–] theangriestbird 6 points 1 year ago

Seriously. Why should we care about innovation if it only produces solutions for the wealthy?

[–] ConsciousCode 7 points 1 year ago

They're innovating how to make the smallest, least significant tweaks to their chemical formulas to extend patents another 20 years.

[–] marco 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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