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WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday ballyhooed a routine step in Medicare’s new program to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs, its latest effort to draw attention to the program in an election year.

The news is not controversial: The pharmaceutical companies that make the first ten drugs up for negotiation all submitted counteroffers. It’s an incremental step in the new program, which was created in 2022.

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Earlier this year, Medicare sent its initial price offers to the companies. Neither the Biden administration nor the drug manufacturers have volunteered any information about the White House’s initial price offers or the counteroffers. The process is scheduled to end by Aug. 1.

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