LONDON — Medicare’s first-ever drug pricing negotiations are officially underway. But neither government officials nor drugmakers are wanting to show their cards, at least publicly.
Last week, Medicare made its first offers to the makers of the 10 products subject to negotiation, though it said it would be up to the companies to discuss the proposals. On Thursday, at a press briefing at which they presented their 2023 earnings, AstraZeneca executives also played coy about the bargaining over the price of the company’s diabetes drug Farxiga.
“We have received the first offer, but as you can imagine, we will not disclose what the offer is,” Ruud Dobber, the company’s executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals business, said at the event, held at the London Stock Exchange. “We are in active negotiation, and it will be a few rounds of discussions” with Medicare.