A little-noticed policy shift by the Trump administration caused a seven-year delay in choosing a costly AbbVie medicine for Medicare price negotiations, a move likely to hurt taxpayers, according to an analysis by a consumer advocacy group.

The change occurred as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services readied a new round of talks with drugmakers over prices that the agency would pay for a limited number of medicines. The process was created by the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in 2022 in response to the rising cost of prescription drugs.