Prescription Drugs

ASPE contracted with RAND Health Care to carry out three studies analyzing data on U.S. prescription drug prices and availability in comparison to drug prices and availability in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In 2022, U.S. prices across all drugs (brands and generics) were nearly 2.78 times as high as prices in the comparison countries. U.S.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) expanded financial assistance in Medicare’s Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) Program would have benefited nearly 461,000 Partial LIS enrollees had the provision been in effect in 2020. An additional 2.9 million Part D enrollees who were eligible but not enrolled in LIS would also have benefited from the program.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes provisions to increase accessibility and affordability of prescription drugs for the 65 million Medicare beneficiaries, reduce the rate of growth in Medicare drug spending, and improve the financial sustainability of the Medicare program. These IRA provisions include a rebate on certain Part B and D drug prices if prices rise faster than inflation.

The cornerstone of a well-functioning market is competition. President Biden’s Executive Order 14036, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy” identified a lack of competition as a key driver for problems across economic sectors.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is helping people with Medicare afford their medications, including the 2.1 million Asian, 5.8 million Black, and 5.3 million Latino Part D enrollees. These fact sheets review existing research to present the projected impacts of key IRA Medicare drug-related provisions for these populations.

Development of novel antimicrobials has slowed, and the preclinical and clinical pipeline is likely to be insufficient to support current and future patient needs.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate prices directly with participating manufacturers for selected drugs that are high expenditure, single source drugs without generic or biosimilar competition.

The market for antimicrobial (AM) drugs is unique in that it is associated with a positive externality (public health) as well as a negative externality (antimicrobial resistance, or AMR) (Mossialos, et al., 2010). AMR occurs when microbes change over time and no longer respond to available medicine.

In 2017, at least 2.8 million people in the U.S. acquired serious infections with bacteria that are resistant to one or more antimicrobial drugs and 35,000 have died as a result. Resistance to antimicrobials is viewed as a global threat with antimicrobial drug use in human and animal health driving resistance.

Introduction