Har­vard schol­ars call to elim­i­nate or­phan drug ex­emp­tion in IRA to save Medicare more

While bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies are call­ing foul over the fact that block­buster drugs with mul­ti­ple or­phan des­ig­na­tions re­main el­i­gi­ble for gov­ern­ment price ne­go­ti­a­tions un­der the In­fla­tion Re­duc­tion Act, Har­vard re­searchers are call­ing on Con­gress to do away with the cur­rent ex­emp­tion for drugs with on­ly a sin­gle or­phan des­ig­na­tion.

Such a move by Con­gress, ac­cord­ing to the au­thors of a new JA­MA In­ter­nal Med­i­cine pa­per, could save bil­lions more dol­lars on top of what the IRA is cur­rent­ly sav­ing by Medicare ne­go­ti­at­ing the prices of the most ex­pen­sive bi­o­log­ics and small mol­e­cule drugs.

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