As Dust Settles from Rushed and Reckless Passage of Republican Tax Scam, Some of the Costliest Prescription Drugs, Including Cancer Treatments, Have Been Exempted from Medicare Negotiation for Years to Come
Trump and RFK Jr.’s Hypocrisy on Full Display as Republicans Once Again Shower Big Pharma with Taxpayer Dollars While Seniors with Cancer Continue to Pay Thousands for Treatment
Washington, D.C. – Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called out Trump and Republicans in Congress for sneaking a policy into their massive budget bill that gives a handout to Big Pharma while keeping costs high for sick Americans. The provision weakens Medicare drug cost negotiation by exempting and delaying a growing number of expensive prescription drugs from the negotiation process, including many of the world’s best-selling drugs to treat cancer.
As a result, several of these high-cost drugs which otherwise would have been selected for negotiation in 2026 will instead be able to protect their high prices for years to come while seniors and people with disabilities continue to pay thousands of dollars annually.
“Despite all your tough talk on Big Pharma, the only drug pricing policy the Trump Administration has actually enacted is a multi-billion-dollar bailout for some of the world’s biggest–and most expensive–blockbuster drugs and wealthy pharmaceutical corporations,” the Senators wrote. “The cost of cancer medications like Keytruda is killing people who cannot afford treatment, causing bankruptcy, and forcing families of people stricken with cancer to face untenable choices between paying for medications and other vital needs. If you actually want to get serious about lowering drug prices, you should start by immediately calling upon Congress to repeal this Big Pharma bailout, which would save cancer patients and taxpayers billions of dollars in drug costs.”
The Republican tax bill includes provisions that block or delay the Trump Administration from using Medicare drug price negotiation that Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act to lower the price of certain billion-dollar drugs. The drugs impacted by this change include the top-selling cancer drugs in the world, such as Keytruda, Opdivo, Darzalex, and more. Many of these drugs, including Keytruda, would have been selected for negotiation early next year had Republicans not voluntarily delayed these negotiations to line Big Pharma’s pockets.
Keytruda has been on the market since 2014 and typically costs around $150,000 to $175,000 per patient annually. In 2024 alone, Keytruda’s global sales exceeded $29 billion, making it by far the top-selling drug in the world. Medicare fee-for-service paid $5.5 billion for Keytruda in 2023, with seniors and other patients often burdened by thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses each year.
Read the full letter here.
Throughout her career Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has worked to strengthen the Medicare and Medicaid programs to support seniors and low-income families. Senator Cortez Masto has repeatedly and consistently called out President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ attempts to slash Medicaid and harm Nevada families to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Cortez Masto has passed legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and cap the cost of insulin at $35-a-month for Medicare recipients through the Inflation Reduction Act. Earlier this year, the Senator introduced draft legislation to strengthen Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, an effective way to root out fraud and abuse in the health care system without kicking millions of Americans off of their health care.
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