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Guest column by Amy Klobuchar

For far too many Americans, high drug prices can force difficult choices like whether to ration meds or pay for groceries. This has been true even for seniors covered by Medicare.

Medicare is the biggest payer of prescription drugs in the country. If our free market system was working the way it’s supposed to, that would give Medicare some serious bargaining power. But up until two years ago, a provision in federal law written by Big Pharma companies prevented Medicare from getting better prices for seniors and taxpayers.

That’s why for years, I led the legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices for our seniors. It became law two years ago, and we’re starting to see the results. Last month, we announced the new, lower list prices for the first ten drugs that Medicare negotiated:

• Eliquis, which nearly four million seniors take to prevent and treat blood clots, will be 56 percent cheaper than the 2023 list price.

• Jardiance, which nearly two million seniors take to treat diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease, will be 66 percent cheaper.

• Xarelto, which over 1.3 million seniors use to prevent and treat blood clots, will be 62 percent cheaper.

• Januvia, which more than 840,000 seniors use to treat diabetes, will be 79 percent cheaper.

• Farxiga, which nearly one million seniors use to treat diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease, will be 68 percent cheaper.

• Entresto, which more than 660,000 seniors use to treat heart failure, will be 53 percent cheaper.

• Enbrel, which close to 50,000 seniors use to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis, will be 67 percent cheaper.

• Imbruvica, which nearly 20,000 seniors use to treat blood cancers, will be 38 percent cheaper.

• Stelara, which more than 20,000 seniors use to treat psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis, will be 66 percent cheaper.

• Fiasp and NovoLog, which more than 780,000 seniors use to treat diabetes, will be 76 percent cheaper.

This progress couldn’t have come a moment too soon — nearly 120,000 Minnesota seniors took these drugs the year we passed Medicare price negotiation into law.

For these seniors and millions more, the first ten discounted prices are a game-changer that will save them an estimated $1.5 billion in 2026 alone. But it isn’t only seniors who will benefit. Lower negotiated Medicare prices give employers and commercial health plans leverage to negotiate lower drug prices for their enrollees. That means Medicare negotiating drug prices will benefit patients with private insurance coverage, too.

The discounted prices on these ten medications are only the beginning — the list of drugs with lower prices will continue to grow each year. And there’s still so much more to do, which is why I’m fighting to pass my new legislation to bring down prices even more and double the number of medications eligible for price negotiation each year.

I’m also committed to making sure Big Pharma doesn’t wipe out the progress we’ve made. The big drug companies are spending millions trying to protect their profits in court. We won’t let Big Pharma win. That’s why I’m leading legal briefs to fight back against these baseless lawsuits. And I won’t give up until American seniors no longer have to choose between filling their prescriptions and filling their grocery carts.

I know we will prevail because I remember the obstacles we overcame to end Big Pharma’s sweetheart deal in the first place. Those big drug companies had three lobbyists for every member of Congress and spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to stop us.

Big Pharma had the money, but what they didn’t have was the power of over 50 million seniors who put their feet down and said “enough is enough.”

Together, we fought hard. Together, we earned this win. And together, we will put an end to the era of Big Pharma shaking down our seniors for profit.

Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, is a U.S. senator.