June 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday revised its guidance for its Medicare drug price negotiation process, allowing drug companies to publicly discuss the talks, but did not make major changes likely to convince drugmakers to end their suits seeking to halt the program. In September, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will select 10 of the Medicare program's costliest prescription medicines and negotiate price cuts to go into effect for 2026. That guidance precluded drug makers from talking about the negotiations and required them to eventually destroy data received from CMS. Industry group the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) made an additional claim that the price negotiation program violates the U.S. Constitution's Eight Amendment, which protects against excessive fines. The Biden administration's drug pricing reform aims to save $25 billion annually by 2031 through price negotiations for the drugs most costly to Medicare.

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Persons: drugmakers, Joe Biden, Chiquita Brooks, LaSure, Bristol Myers, Merck, PhRMA, Tahir Amin, Amin, Michael Erman, Mark Potter, Nick Zieminski Organizations: U.S, U.S . Centers, Medicare, Medicaid Services, Merck & Co, Bristol Myers Squibb, U.S . Chamber of Commerce, CMS, Merck, Bristol, Industry, Pharmaceutical Research, Manufacturers of America, Reuters, Initiative for Medicines, Biden, Thomson Locations: U.S