News and Reports | April 17, 2025
Patients for Affordable Drugs, a patient advocacy organization, called the provision on the negotiation program “deeply harmful.”
“Delaying Medicare negotiation for small-molecule drugs – the most commonly used medications – is a clear giveaway to Big Pharma. It would hand drug companies four additional years to price-gouge patients, one in three of whom can’t afford their prescription drugs today,” said Merith Basey, executive director of the organization, in a statement. “This change isn’t about supporting innovation as the industry claims – it’s about protecting exorbitant profits.”
Basey did note that patients will be encouraged by other steps taken in this executive order, including efforts to increase competition for generics and biosimilars, reduce insulin costs and improve accountability on pharmacy benefit managers. With the latter provision, the administration aims to improve the disclosure of fees that PBMs pay brokers for directing employers to their services.