Saying he is 'fighting back' on prices, Biden announces rebates on select drugs

Dec. 14 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden visited the National Institutes of Health Thursday to tout how a new law is helping cap prescription drug costs that rose faster than the rate of inflation.

During Thursday's remarks Biden announced an action that will protect some 750,000 seniors who saw their drug prices drastically spike over the past year.

"For too long Americans have been paying more for prescription drugs than any advanced nation on earth," Biden said. "You could have the exact same drug, made by the exact same company in the United States ... in any other major capital in the world you will find they're paying two to three times less than what you're paying at an American drug store."

The White House on Thursday also announced that 64 drugs in total saw price increases that outpaced the rate of inflation that may be subject to rebates.

"In the year before we passed this legislation, drug makers jacked up prices nearly four times faster than inflation went up," Biden said. "They're ripping off Medicare, and they're ripping off the American people. But we're now fighting back."

Provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act require pharmaceutical companies to pay rebates to Medicare because they raised drug prices past inflation rates, allowing the Biden administration to crack down on price gouging around prescription drugs which the White House said saves seniors who take those drugs "between $1 and $2,786 per dose on their medication."

The administration has been pitching how the law was already having positive outcomes for seniors by making drugmakers more cautious about raising drug prices. The White House said it is contemplating taking even more aggressive action, like breaking the patents of expensive drugs.

The White House said the Inflation Reduction Act has saved nearly 15 million Americans an average of $800 in 2023 because of health insurance savings the law locked in. The act has capped the cost of insulin at $35 per covered insulin product for Medicare beneficiaries.

The law has also recommended vaccines -- like the shingles vaccine -- be free for the 50.5 million seniors with Medicare Part D and approved adult vaccines free for all adults in the Children's Health Insurance Program.