WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is delaying a proposal to crack down on a loophole that allows drugmakers to avoid Medicare price negotiation on some of their products by making minor tweaks.
While President Trump pressures drugmakers to charge Americans prices on par with other rich countries, he rarely mentions that Medicare already has started negotiating drug prices. The negotiation program was created by former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed without a single Republican vote.
Some Wall Street analysts and Washington insiders have said they think the Trump administration’s Medicare officials are negotiating prices more aggressively than the Biden administration. On the other hand, this is the latest example of the administration showing lenience to drugmakers, after Trump’s tax bill exempted from negotiation drugs that treat multiple rare diseases, known as orphan drugs, and delayed Medicare negotiation for drugs first approved as orphans and later approved for wider use.
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