The Biden administration is touting its efforts to lower prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) with the release of data showing a decline in costs for people with Medicare.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Wednesday morning that 27 drugs would have lower Part B coinsurances from April through June of this year — with Medicare beneficiaries saving anywhere from $2 to $390 per dose starting next month.

That mechanism — the Medicare prescription drug inflation rebate program — was signed into law with the IRA in August. The bill requires pharma companies to pay rebates to Medicare if they hike up drug prices for single source drugs and biologicals faster than the rate of inflation.

As a result, people with Medicare may see lower out-of-pocket drug costs for certain Part B drugs and biologicals, if their prices have risen faster than the rate of inflation. Medicare beneficiaries will also pay a coinsurance that’s about 20% of the inflation-adjusted cost.

“The Medicare prescription drug inflation rebate program is a critical way to address long-term price increases by drug companies while improving access and affordability for the millions of people with Medicare coverage,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement.

HHS released a list of those 27 drugs, which includes AbelcetCytogamFolotynHumiraPadcev and Xiaflex among others.

“The Biden-Harris administration believes people with Medicare shouldn’t be on the hook when drug companies inexplicably jack up the prices of their drugs,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “President Biden made lowering prescription drug costs for Americans a top priority and we’re using every lever we have to deliver results.”

The White House also released a report as part of its IRA research series that indicated seniors on Medicare are saving money on vaccines. Starting in January this year, the IRA removed out-of-pocket costs for vaccines that are covered under Medicare Part D, and are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

In 2021, people who received a Part D vaccine (the majority received either the shingles vaccine or the Tdap vaccine) ended up paying $234 million in out-of-pocket costs — or about $70 per person, the report found.

Moving forward, seniors and people with disabilities with Medicare may save up to $230 million on vaccines, the HHS said.

“Thanks to this historic law, most people with Medicare won’t have any out-of-pocket costs for many vaccines that can protect them against disease and severe illness,” Becerra added in a statement.

Given recent developments, it’s worth noting that the IRA also capped out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 per month for Medicare beneficiaries. One recent report out of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation found that some 1.5 million people with Medicare could save up to $500 per year on insulin because of the new bill.

The news comes as several big drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, announced they would be cutting the cost of insulin. Part of their motivation to do so has been linked to their desire to avoid paying rebates to Medicaid if they increase the price of insulin faster than the rate of inflation.