CMS Flags 15 Drugs for Third Round of Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
- January 30, 2026
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) selected this week 15 more drugs, including for the first time those payable under Medicare Part B, for the third round of the Medicare drug price negotiation program.
Included on the list are Eli Lilly & Co.’s Trulicity, which is used to treat Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease; Gilead Sciences Inc.'s HIV medication Biktarvy; and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Orencia for Psoriatic and Rheumatoid arthritis, according to a fact sheet. CMS also selected one previously negotiated drug— Boehringer Ingelheim’s Type 2 diabetes medication Tradjenta—for the program’s first cycle of renegotiations.
CMS said about 1.8 million Medicare enrollees used the 15 newly selected drugs over the last year, accounting for roughly 6%, or $27 billion, in total Part B and Part D prescription drug spending.
In a bid to increase transparency, the agency also released a list of the 50 top negotiation-eligible drugs based on combined expenditures under Parts B and D.
Drug companies with a selected drug for the third cycle of negotiations have until February 28 to decide whether to participate in negotiations. Prices negotiated and renegotiated through the third round will go into effect January 1, 2028.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allows Medicare Part B and Part D to negotiate prices for certain high-spend single source drugs that do not have generic or biosimilar competition. In the first and second rounds, CMS selected and negotiated maximum fair prices for ten and 15 Medicare Part D-covered drugs, respectively.
CMS announced in December 2025 the negotiated prices for the 15 drugs included in the second round, which ranged between 38% to 85% off list prices. Those prices will take effect January 1, 2027. The first round of negotiated drug prices went into effect January 1 of this year.