With tighter rules from the Inflation Reduction Act approaching, Bristol-Myers Squibb will cancel plans for some drug development programs and cancer treatments, the drugmaker's CEO, Giovanni Caforio, MD, recently told the Financial Times.
This was one of the main arguments against the Inflation Reduction Act, which has partly already been implemented, but its biggest measures are spread out over the next four years. Beginning in 2023, pharmaceutical companies that sell products at prices that increase faster than inflation rates — which has recently been more than 1,200 drugs — will be required to pay a tax penalty.
In about three years, the government will have negotiation power for the 10 most expensive drugs that have no generic or biosimilar competition and have been on the market for at least nine years. Dr. Caforio said this provision will hinder future medication developments.
"The period during which we can obtain a return on our investments has been arbitrarily shortened significantly," Dr. Caforio told the Financial Times. "Like every one of our peer companies, we are concerned about that because it will have an impact on the number of new medicines that are developed and it will have an impact on the way new medicines are developed."