Drug Pricing & Access

Medicare drug-price negotiation under the IRA remains the most VBC-relevant development, with CMS’ expanding negotiation authority increasing pressure on manufacturers, Part D plans, MA-PD sponsors, ACOs, and health systems to reassess formulary strategy, specialty-drug total cost exposure, and patient access risks as negotiated prices phase in (IRA negotiation tracking). Pipeline activity around finerenone label expansion in CKD and in vivo CRISPR/gene-editing therapies underscores a near-term access-and-affordability tension: population-health programs may gain new tools for high-cost chronic and rare