Medicines manufacturers are a new group to put pressure on the impact of negotiation of drug prices for medication

Washington – A handful of pharmaceutical companies have trained a group to present to legislators research on what industry considers the negative impacts of negotiations on Medicare drug prices, according to lobbying files.

The group is called the IRA watchdog after the law on the reduction of inflation, which ordered Medicare to negotiate the prices of certain drugs. Its members are Merck, Astrazeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb Company and Eli Lilly, according to lobbying disclosure registers. The group describes itself as a “coalition analyzing the impact of the negotiation of medical drug prices on patients”.

Medication manufacturers have opposed the negotiation of health insurance prices because they consider that government prices decrease innovation. However, they support some of the other changes in the law, including ceilings on current expenses for the elderly.