Corrected: Bipartisan IRA fix seeks to align small molecule and biologic negotiation periods

As the bio­phar­ma in­dus­try has loud­ly crit­i­cized a pro­vi­sion in the In­fla­tion Re­duc­tion Act that pro­vides for ne­go­ti­a­tions to hap­pen soon­er for small mol­e­cule drugs than bi­o­log­ics, rep­re­sen­ta­tives on both sides of the aisle yes­ter­day af­ter­noon in­tro­duced the bill that will even the play­ing field be­tween the two.

While most drugs and bi­o­log­ics typ­i­cal­ly en­joy about 14 years with­out gener­ic or biosim­i­lar com­pe­ti­tion, the IRA sets ne­go­ti­a­tions for 10 of the most ex­pen­sive drugs (start­ing in 2026) at 13 years af­ter launch for bi­o­log­ics and 9 years for small mol­e­cule drugs. This new bill wants to in­crease the wait for small mol­e­cule drugs to 13 years.

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