In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes key provisions designed to:
- reduce drug spending by the federal government
- lower prescription drug cost for Medicare beneficiaries
These provisions will unleash forces that will ripple throughout pharmaceutical markets, affecting the behavior of consumers, manufacturers, public and private payers, and other stakeholders in the complex pharmaceutical supply chain.
In particular, Medicare’s newly granted ability to negotiate with manufacturers for specific high-cost drugs will have major impacts on markets, with spillover effects for US private payers and non-US purchasers.
Some of the effects are already being felt, as CMS announced the first ten drugs eligible for negotiation in late 2023.
With support from the National Pharmaceutical Council, Health Affairs has begun a new initiative – “Eye on the IRA” – to help our readers keep up with news and research regarding implementation of this sweeping piece of legislation.
The multiyear initiative consists of two key parts:
- The Health Affairs IRA Observatory and Related Publications – an expert working group of pharmaceutical market stakeholders will inform and guide Health Affairs in identifying newsworthy developments in IRA implementation, providing evidence and information that forms the basis for analyses, written by editorial staff and published in Health Affairs.
- A forthcoming Eye on the IRA series of peer-reviewed journal articles featuring empirical research about the legislation’s effects. Please see the call for papers.
