“Thousands of Medicare recipients will have to wait longer to get some price relief on the expensive cancer drugs they depend on for treatment, while others might not get any reprieve at all.” – Wall Street Journal, 8/03/25
Big Pharma’s pay-to-play multimillion-dollar investments at Mar-A-Lago paid off huge in the Big, Ugly Bill. Thanks to the Republicans in Congress and President Trump, Big Pharma landed their biggest win in years, which will allow them to bypass Medicare drug price negotiations and raise prices on drugs that millions of vulnerable Americans rely on. Now, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Congress’ official scorekeeper, is realizing this multibillion-dollar handout to Big Pharma is even more generous than they initially thought.
In granting this multibillion-dollar giveaway to drug companies, Republicans will raise out-of-pocket costs for critical drugs that treat conditions such as cancer and hypertension. Many of the drugs that would be exempted under the new loophole are some of the most profitable drugs on the market. Countless seniors fighting cancer and other diseases who rely on drugs such as Keytruda and Opdivo will be robbed of financial relief and will suffer the consequences of the Big, Ugly bill, while corporations get more tax breaks.
The only reason to do this is to pad the profits of big drug companies, which are so profitable that they could lose $1 trillion in revenue over a decade and still be the most profitable industry in the world. While Republicans sell out seniors and taxpayers, pad drug company profits, and break their promises to lower the cost of living, Democrats are calling out their hypocrisy and demanding Congress serve everyday people – not wealthy corporations. Read below for a few examples of the many lifesaving drugs seniors will struggle to afford thanks to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress ripping away their chance at relief by exempting or delaying them from Medicare drug price negotiation:
| Drug (Indication), Manufacturer | Global Revenue for Drug Since Launch | Company Net Profit Since Launch | Spending On Rewards For Shareholders Since Launch | Lobbying Spending Since Launch | Spending On R&D Since Launch | Estimated Gross Medicare Spending in 2024 |
| Darzalex (treats blood cancer), Johnson and Johnson | $46 billion | $167 billion | $155 billion | $63 million | $123 billion | $5.6 billion |
| Keytruda* (treats breast, lung, kidney, skin, and GI cancers), Merck | $133 billion | $83 billion | $105 billion | $77 million | $141 billion | $13.5 billion |
| Opdivo* (treats GI and skin cancers),
Bristol-Myers Squibb |
$65 billion | $21 billion | $336 billion | $54 million | $85 billion | $4.7 billion |
| Yervoy (treats liver, lung, GI, and skin cancers),
Bristol-Myers Squibb |
$20 billion | $28 billion | $397 billion | $63 million | $96 billion | $993 million |
| Venclexta (treats leukemia and lymphoma),
AbbVie |
$11 billion | $62 billion | $96 billion | $58 million | $66 billion | $814 million |
*Drug is the top revenue-generating product in the manufacturers’ portfolio.
Spending on rewards for shareholders includes company spending on stock buybacks and dividends since the launch of the drug.
The data on revenues, profits, and shareholder rewards comes from analysis of publicly available SEC filings through March 2025.
Lobbying spend was obtained from opensecrets.org. Estimates of 2025 Medicare spending were obtained from WSJ/University of Washington.
The evidence is clear, these policies were never about innovation or orphan disease – they are about padding drug company profits.
These drug companies pocketed an average of $72 billion in net profits and spent an average of $82 billion more on shareholder compensation than research and development since the launch of these drugs, all while collectively spending hundreds of millions lobbying to protect their egregious profits.
Republicans designed these policies to carve out top-selling products from drug price negotiation, ensuring drug companies’ exorbitant profits remain untouched while seniors continue to be forced to choose between putting food on the table and affording the health care they need to survive.