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 The Democratic president's remarks laid out his vision to help
reduce the costs for prescription medications as part of the Build
Back Better agenda he is seeking to push through Congress as the
nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers have earned high praise for quickly
developing vaccines against the novel coronavirus. But the outbreak
of the highly contagious disease, which upended the economy and has
so far killed more than 617,000 people in the United States, also
drew renewed attention to healthcare costs.
Biden on Thursday lauded drugmakers for their life-saving work
developing the COVID-19 vaccines.
"But we can make a distinction between developing these
breakthroughs and jacking up prices on a range of medications for a
range of everyday diseases and conditions," he said in remarks at
the White House.
Biden said U.S. prescription drug costs were higher than any other
nation in the world by two to three times.
Drugmakers, reeling from a reduction in doctor visits and demand for
some drugs amid the pandemic, raised prices on more than 500
medicines, an analysis released in January showed.
After passing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus-related bill in March,
Democrats adopted a two-pronged strategy - a $1 trillion hard
infrastructure plan that passed the Senate this week and a
forthcoming $3.5 trillion spending measure for so-called human
infrastructure.
That spending plan would expand Medicare to include dental, vision
and hearing benefits as well as lower the eligibility age, among
other healthcare, climate and childcare provisions. More than 61.2
million people have coverage under the Medicare health insurance
program for the elderly and disabled, according to the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
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 'MISGUIDED APPROACH'
Biden wants CMS to be able to negotiate for a
subset of the highest-cost drugs that have no
competitors.
"We’re going to provide that competition through
Medicare. Medicare is going to negotiate a fair
price," he said. "Drug companies would have to
sell their drugs to all distributors at the
Medicare price or face up to a 95 percent excise
tax. The savings for employers and employees
would be billions of dollars a year."
Biden's proposal is not well-liked by companies. The Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association,
called it a "misguided approach."
"The price controls proposed by the Biden administration are nothing
more than a tax on the research investments that have made break-throughs,
like the COVID vaccines, possible," U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice
President Neil Bradley said in a statement on behalf of the business
lobby group.
"Price controls will result in less research investment and fewer
U.S. jobs, leaving America unprepared for the next public health
crisis and delaying the development of treatments for cancer,
Alzheimer’s and many other diseases," he said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by
Michael Erman; Editing by Dan Grebler and Peter Cooney)
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