S. 1862 · Where this bill is now
In committee
Introduced in the Senate, May 22, 2025
What this bill does
In plain words · AI-written from the official summaryProtects rare disease drugs from price negotiations
Starting in 2026, Medicare will be able to negotiate prices for certain prescription drugs. However, this bill changes which drugs can be negotiated. It excludes orphan drugs—medications for rare diseases—from price negotiations. Specifically, it doesn't count the years a drug spent as an orphan drug when deciding if enough time has passed, and it keeps orphan drugs approved for multiple rare diseases out of the negotiation program entirely.
How it affects you
If you or a loved one takes medication for a rare disease, this bill means those drugs would be protected from Medicare price negotiations. This could keep prices higher for rare disease treatments, which might affect your out-of-pocket costs depending on your insurance coverage. For people without rare diseases, the bill doesn't directly change their situation.
Read the official summary (Introduced in Senate, May 22, 2025)
Optimizing Research Progress Hope And New Cures Act or the ORPHAN Cures Act
This bill modifies certain provisions under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program with respect to orphan drugs.
The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to negotiate the prices of certain prescription drugs under Medicare beginning in 2026. Among other requirements, drugs must have had market approval for at least 7 years (for drug products) or 11 years (for biologics) to qualify for negotiation. The program does not apply to orphan drugs that are approved to treat only one rare disease or condition.
The bill modifies these provisions so as to exclude any period in which a drug was an orphan drug from market approval calculations. It also excludes orphan drugs that are approved to treat more than one rare disease or condition from the program.
Written by AI (Claude) using only the official summary by the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress’s nonpartisan research staff. It can miss nuance, so check the official summary and the bill text for details.
1st SessionS. 1862
A BILL
ORPHAN Cures Act
Sponsor: Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) · Introduced May 22, 2025 · Health · 1 version of the text
Sources: Congress.gov actions and votes · bill text from GovInfo · latest official action May 22, 2025: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S3119)”