November 26, 2025
Price negotiations expand Medicare's power to directly negotiate with drugmakers, threatening pharmaceutical industry profits
On Nov. 25, 2025, the Trump administration announced the second round of Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), achieving an average 44% price reduction on 15 high-cost medications—projected to save $12 billion annually and cut seniors' out-of-pocket costs by $685 million.
When Congress created Medicare Part D in 2003, pharmaceutical lobbyists inserted a "noninterference clause" explicitly prohibiting Medicare from negotiating drug prices—the only major health program in the developed world with such a restriction.
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