The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes provisions requiring Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for some of the United States’ most costly drugs, marks the first time in decades that the pharmaceutical industry has lost a major policy battle. So, as expected, drug corporations are attacking the new law. The industry’s latest red herring? That, relative to previous law, the reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act economically disadvantage small-molecule drugs compared to biologics, which will hurt innovation, increase prices, and harm the people who need these medicines.
This claim is completely misleading, and unsupported by the facts. The Inflation Reduction Act actually narrows the advantage for biologics over small molecules.
This may seem like a complicated detail, but getting it straight is critically important for people like me. I live with an incurable blood cancer called multiple myeloma and rely on both small-molecule drugs like pomalidomide and biologics like daratumumab to keep me alive. People like me need both types of drugs today and will continue to need them in the future, and the new drug price law is structured to make sure both will be developed and both will continue to be profitable for drug makers.
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