Joe Biden, who is running a presidential campaign focused heavily on purchasing power, promised today to lower the price of ten prescription drugs for serious illnesses, sparking backlash from some pharmaceutical companies.

“As long as the pharmaceutical industry makes record profits, millions of Americans must choose between paying for the drugs they need to live or paying for food, rent or other basic needs. This era is coming to an end,” promised Democratic president, according to a statement.

According to a Rand Corporation study, the US pays an average of 2.5 times more for prescription drugs than France, for example.

The reform announced today is part of the larger Inflation Reduction Act — a very large program of energy transition and social reform.

The White House has chosen in a first year ten drugs that Medicare, the health insurance system for people over 65, will henceforth be able to negotiate the price.

This was not the case until now, unlike the health insurance systems of many rich countries.

According to the US government, in 2022 seniors had to spend a total of $3.4 billion out of pocket to buy these prescription treatments when they have problems with blood clots, diabetes, heart disease, psoriasis and blood cancers.

One such drug, the anticoagulant Eliquis (apixabane), is taken by more than 3.7 million Medicare beneficiaries.

The lab that makes it, BMS (Bristol Myers Squibb), states that Medicare beneficiaries who are prescribed this drug “can currently get it by paying out-of-pocket for a relatively low $55 a month at average” and asserts that Joe Biden’s initiative “threatens” this situation.

Johnson & Johnson, whose two drugs are in the top 10 for which Medicare can negotiate a price, said the reform would “restrict medical innovation as well as patient access and choice and have a negative impact on overall quality of care”.