Big Pharma is trying to kill Medicare price negotiations.

Since I’ve been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease the doctors has prescribed two infusion medications.

The latest is Skyrizi. The drug is produced by pharmaceutical giant AbbVie. They spend millions on television advertisements as a treatment for psoriasis, a skin disease, as well as Crohn’s which affects the gastrointestinal system.

Weird duo. Right?

You probably have seen the guy on TV with Crohn’s happily riding a ferris wheel or the woman with Crohn’s parasailing.

I’m thinking if AbbVie didn’t spend so much on TV ads they wouldn’t have to price Skyrizi at $14,000 a dose.

I am fortunate that it is covered by my retirement health insurance.

Sort of.

The first three once a month dose is an infusion performed by a medical practitioner in a medical facility. It is fully covered. No co-pay. After that I inject it myself at home and the same drug requires a $100 co-pay every dose.

That’s has nothing to do with AbbVie. That’s a Medicare thing. The infusions by a medical practitioner is characterized by Medicare as a procedure. When I do it at home it is a drug covered by Medicare part D.

As part of the Inflation Reduction act, Congressional Democrats and President Biden delivered Big Pharma a partial defeat this year by allowing Medicare to negotiate some, but not all, drug prices.

The drugs covered by the law are limited but include some of the most expensive ones.

In response Big Pharma has launched a major legal assault against the new law in an all-out effort to kill the program.

Since June, pharma giants Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol Myers Squibb, along with Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma and two industry groups all have filed federal lawsuits accusing the program of being unconstitutional.

I’m not entirely sure which part of the constitution guarantees billions of dollars to the drug companies but these drug giants and the industry are hoping that the Supreme Court are their friends and will overturn the law.

And given the make-up the the Supreme court they may have good reason to think that.

The process of getting the challenge before the highest court could take years. But regardless of when or if that comes to pass, legal skirmishes already under way could have impact out-of-pocket costs paid by retirees.

And not for the better.