The Department of Health and Human Services is about to publish the final prices for 10 prescription drugs that Medicare covers, following negotiations between the federal government and the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The drugs include expensive, widely used blood thinners and diabetes treatments, as well as a cancer therapy medication.

Such negotiations are routine in most other economically advanced countries ― it’s the way their governments set drug prices — but they have never before taken place in the U.S. That’s changing this year thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed on a party-line vote and President Joe Biden signed into law last year.