Pfizer Rx will pay Medicare rebates for five drugs under Biden plan to lower costs

of five Pfizer’s The Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that prescription drugs will cost less for Medicare recipients starting next month as part of President Joe Biden’s plan to lower drug costs.

Pfizer’s drugs are among the first set of 27 Part B prescription drugs that will be subject to Medicare inflation rebates starting April 1, according to the department. It requires Pfizer and other prescription drug companies to back Medicare through rebates because the prices of those drugs have risen faster than the rate of inflation.

Pfizer’s drugs include the blood thinner Fragmin, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994. It also includes Atgam, a drug used to treat symptoms of renal allografts and aplastic anemia, and the chemotherapy injection Nipent. Pfizer’s antibacterial drugs Bicillin LA and Bicillin CR, used to treat syphilis, are also included. Both the drugs are also used to treat upper respiratory infections.

The department said seniors could see their out-of-pocket costs for the drugs drop by $2 to an average of $390 per dose. The amount Medicare beneficiaries save depends on several factors, such as what their treatment protocol is and whether they have supplemental coverage.

The savings stem from a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act, which congressional Democrats passed last August. The announcement is also part of Biden’s broader push to reduce health care costs for Americans amid high inflation.

The department said that apart from the rebate, the provision discourages other companies from increasing their prices at a faster rate than inflation in future. An HHS report released in September 2022 found that the prices of 1,200 prescription drugs were set to rise faster than inflation in 2021, the year before the IRA was signed into law.

Later this year, Medicare will begin negotiating lower drug prices for its beneficiaries.

“Already, millions of seniors are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year because of the actions of the Biden administration, and President Biden is fighting to extend these cost savings to all Americans,” the White House said in a statement.