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President Joe Biden is expected to unveil the biggest change to Medicare in more than six decades Tuesday as his administration reveals the names of the first ten prescription drugs that will be targeted for direct price negotiation by the U.S. government.

The direct price negotiations for a key plank of President Biden’s 202 Inflation Reduction Act, with gave the government permission to barter directly with drug companies in order to lower the price of key medications used by the more than 52 million Medicare members.

At present, pharmacy benefit managers that run Medicare prescription plans, such as CVS Health  (CVS) – Get Free Report, Humana  (HUM) – Get Free Report and UnitedHealth  (UNH) – Get Free Report, negotiate rebates from drugmakers they say are used to lower premium costs. 

Analysts expect drugmakers such as Pfizer  (PFE) – Get Free Report, Bristol Myers  (BMY) – Get Free Report and Johnson & Johnson  (JNJ) – Get Free Report will be affected by the price negotiation changes, but while the names of the drugs that will be targeted will be published today, the actual impact won’t take effect until 2026.

“While some provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are likely to strengthen Part D and address some of the affordability challenges patients face, the law’s price setting provisions threaten access to medicines,” the PhRMA lobby group, which is challenging the Biden administration in court, said in a recent blogpost.

“Yes, the IRA took important steps to lower out-of-pocket costs in Part D,” the PhRMA said “But the law failed to rein in the insurers and PBMs administering Part D plans who are leaving patients with higher costs and less access to medicines.”

President Biden is expected to make a statement at the White House, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, after the drug pricing target announcement.

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