Confidential agreements between the Trump administration and drugmakers could wipe out most of the Medicare savings expected from new rules that tie U.S. drug payments to prices abroad, according to a modeling study in The Lancet published September 13. Excluding medicines made by the first 17 companies with deals would cut projected savings by 71%, the researchers estimated.
The lead author says the loss could now be larger. After a new round of deals announced on August 31 raised the reported total to 26 companies, Dr. Thomas Hwang of Brigham and Women's Hospital updated the estimate to nearly 80%, according to the journal's press release. That figure is his calculation after publication, not a result reported in the paper.
