Speaking with the Person Behind the Inflation Reduction Act Drug Price Negotiations

May 30, 2023

The US drug pricing reform in the Inflation Reduction Act was concocted by John Barkett of the Berkely Research Group. In a new interview, Politico’s Ben Leonard spoke to Barkett to talk about the process and the next steps for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Barkett first spoke about pharma’s criticism of the move and the agency.

According to Barkett, “CMS is striking the balance required to get input when appropriate, but also meet the really tight deadlines the IRA requires. You’ve got a year to set up brand new competency within CMS, hire the people, create the structure, set out the ground rules and analyze the data. And that’s just for the Medicare negotiation parts. If they’re requesting comments in 30 days, that’s because that’s the time they had in order to meet other deadlines. It doesn’t represent any arrogance or disregard of stakeholders.”

To read more, click here.

(Source: Politico, May 30th, 2023)

Share This Story!