Source: Town Hall
by Victor Riches
“When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, it promised to lower healthcare costs, particularly for Medicare beneficiaries. Central to this effort were two key provisions: Medicare’s Drug Price Negotiation Program and new price caps on selected drugs. That promise, however, may carry unintended costs for patients. Multiple studies since the law’s passage have suggested that those relying on the development of gene therapies or repurposed drugs could face reduced pharmaceutical innovation as a result of the heavy hand of government price setting. The IRA’s Drug Price Negotiation Program will likely trigger two troubling trends, the first being reduced investment in the development of new drugs …. Second, it will weaken incentives to finance research into the repurposing of existing drugs, which has historically yielded efficient, cost-effective breakthroughs—precisely because much of the underlying pharmacological data is already established.” (05/06/25)