Medicare Chief Meeting With Pharma CEOs on New Pricing Policy

A top Biden administration official planning Medicare’s first drug-price negotiations is talking directly with pharma executives and consulting with other agencies that buy medications for the government to begin hammering out details of the new policy.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSuredidn’t name which chief executive officers she’s met with but said the conversations have been collaborative. Her comments contrast with the drug industry’s confrontational public stance against the policy.

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure

Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“It has to be a collaborative process because manufacturers absolutely have leverage and the ability to negotiate with us,” she said Thursday in an ...