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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday announced three new drug pricing policy experiments that would standardize how much Medicare patients pay for certain generic drugs, pilot new ways for Medicaid to pay for pricey cell and gene therapies, and test ways to pay for drugs approved without proven clinical benefit to patients.

The new proposals are the result of an executive order President Biden signed last year directing the administration to develop demonstrations that would complement Democrats’ new drug pricing law. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services uses demonstrations to pilot test policy ideas, and if those policies work out, the agency can expand them into programs without the approval of Congress.

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The law Democrats passed last summer directs Medicare to negotiate drug prices, makes drug companies pay back Medicare when price hikes outstrip inflation, and caps seniors’ annual spending for retail drugs — but it will take years to fully implement.

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