Yesterday President Biden unveiled his 2024 budget request that includes drastic changes to the Medicare program. The budget looks to immediately build off the Inflation Reduction Act by rapidly expanding the number of drugs that will be negotiated and decreasing the amount of time that small and large molecule drugs will go without negotiations, from 10 years for small molecules and 13 years for biologics to just five years for both small and large molecule drugs.
“The President’s proposal to double the number of drugs that will be negotiated and decrease the time before negotiation will devastate patients and our innovative economy. Proposing drastic program expansion, even as just a proposal, can harm our member companies’ ability to raise funds and innovate. 80% of the biosciences industry is made up of growth and startup companies that rely on their ability to raise funds from venture firms. The top biotech investors have already voiced their concern that price-setting provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would force venture investors to invest their capital outside of the biosciences industry. We are already witnessing the IRA’s unintended consequences of price controls. The continuation of using the biosciences industry as political fodder erodes investor and consumer confidence in the industry, all the while patients will suffer from decreased access and the root causes of the high patient out-of-pocket costs will go unaddressed.”