The queue of lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) prescription drug price negotiations continues to grow. Novartis AG is the latest drug company, but probably not the last, to join the line. It filed its challenge in federal court in New Jersey Sept. 1, a few days after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services included the company’s heart failure drug, Entresto (sacubitril and valsartan), on its list of the 10 drugs subject to the first round of IRA negotiations.
In response to the Biden administration announcing on Aug. 29 the first 10 medications up for price negotiations with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, U.S. Senate and House Republicans are firing back, calling the imposed “price-controls set by Washington bureaucrats” part of a scheme that “will lead to higher prices for new drugs coming to market, stifle the development of new cures and destroy jobs,” ultimately driving up costs for seniors.
The list of 10 part D Medicare drugs listed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as eligible for negotiation raised some eyebrows on Wall Street, but proved mostly in accord with what the industry expected. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare can for the first time bargain with drug companies. The back-and-forth begins this year, carrying into next year, and the agreed-upon prices will take effect in 2026.
With the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services soon expected to publish the list of 10 drugs selected for the first round of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) price negotiations, Astrazeneca plc is the latest to file a challenge. It’s the first non-U.S.-headquartered company to do so and, unlike the other challenges, Astrazeneca’s complaint focuses on the impact to the Orphan Drug Act (ODA). In a statement, the Cambridge, U.K.-based firm said the “drug price negotiation provisions of the IRA run headlong into the goals” of the ODA.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is the latest company to dive into the legal fray surrounding the federal government’s plan to change drug costs. The drug price negotiation program established by the Inflation Reduction Act is “unlawful,” according to the company’s brief, because it violates the due process clause and the just-compensation portion of the U.S. constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
Nearly 13 years after Congress created a biosimilars path to bring competition to the U.S. biologics market, new rules of the road are coming into play, via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), that could change the course for biosimilars in the long haul – if the IRA’s prescription drug price negotiation mandate withstands numerous constitutional challenges.
Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen pharmaceutical companies added their name July 18 to the growing list of biopharma companies and organizations challenging the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) mandated drug price negotiations.
The floodgates have opened for challenges to the new U.S. drug price negotiation process laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that was narrowly passed last year.
Bristol Meyers Squibb Co. (BMS) joined the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) pile-on June 16, filing a third constitutional challenge to the U.S. Medicare drug price negotiations mandated in the law that was narrowly passed last year on a partisan vote.
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) may look like domestic affair, but the drug price controls it is bringing in are set to impact the biopharma sector across the globe.
