WATCH LIVE: Biden and Harris announce agreement to lower Medicare prices of popular drugs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Thursday that drug pricing negotiations would cut the list prices of 10 of the most popular and expensive Medicare drugs by hundreds — in some cases thousands.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to speak at a Maryland community college at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Watch the speech live in our player above.

The discounts, agreed upon after months of negotiations with drugmakers, range from 38 to 79 percent of the drug's list price, which is the price of the drug before any discounts or reimbursements – not the price people actually pay for prescription drugs.

Medicare spent $50 billion on drug costs last year, and taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion under the new prices, which don't take effect until 2026. Older people could save up to $1.5 billion in total out-of-pocket costs for their drugs. Government officials have released few details about how they arrived at these calculations.

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The renegotiated prices will affect the prices of drugs taken by millions of older Americans to treat diabetes and blood cancers and to prevent heart failure or blood clots. The drugs include the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis and the diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia.

It's a milestone for the Medicare program, which provides health insurance to more than 67 million elderly and disabled Americans. For decades, the federal government was prohibited from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies over the prices of their drugs, even though it's a routine process for private insurers.

“For years, millions of Americans have had to choose between paying for medicine and affording food while the pharmaceutical industry blocked Medicare from negotiating prices on behalf of seniors and the disabled,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “But we fought back – and won.”

The drug deals will become a central issue in Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, especially since she cast the deciding vote to pass the bill. On Thursday, she will join Biden in an announcement on drug prices, their first joint appearance since she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket. Both have struggled to convince voters that costs will fall after years of above-average inflation.

Harris is expected to unveil part of her economic program in North Carolina on Friday, outlining further ways to reduce middle-class costs and increase incomes.

The couple last appeared together in public to welcome Americans imprisoned in Russia who were released earlier this month as part of a large-scale prisoner exchange.

Powerful pharmaceutical companies tried unsuccessfully to file lawsuits to stop the negotiations, which were enacted in 2022 when a Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which overhauled several Medicare prescription drug regulations. But executives at those companies have also indicated on quarterly earnings calls in recent weeks that they do not expect the negotiations to impact their bottom line.

Representatives of the pharmaceutical industry sharply criticized the news from the White House, saying that the costs of health care would be passed on to taxpayers in other ways, including through Medicare premiums.

“The government is using the IRA pricing system to make political headlines, but patients will be disappointed when they learn what it means for them,” said Steve Ubl, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). “The bill, ironically called the Inflation Reduction Act, is a bad deal being forced on American patients: higher costs, more frustrating insurance denials, and fewer treatments and cures for our loved ones.”

Next year, the Ministry of Health may select another 15 drugs for price negotiations.