Supreme Court won’t entertain Pharma’s lawsuit against Medicare drug-price negotiation

Last week, six pharmaceutical companies lost their fight to stop the government from negotiating drug prices for people with Medicare. The lawsuit against the federal government ended at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was not willing to entertain it, reports Lauren Gardner and David Lim report for Politico.

The Inflation Reduction Act, enacted into law under the Biden Administration, without Republican support, gave the federal government the right to negotiate drug prices for people with Medicare. Over the last few years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers Medicare, has negotiated the prices of 25 brand-name drugs, bringing them down significantly. Drugmakers have failed in their arguments that the Constitution prohibited the government from negotiating prescription drug prices.

While the Supreme Court refused to hear these six drugmakers’ case, other drug companies are bringing lawsuits using new claims as to why the government lacks constitutional authority to negotiate drug prices. These claims include free speech and due process infringements.

Notably, the Trump administration has defended Medicare drug price negotiation in the Inflation Reduction Act even though no Republican in Congress supported the law. And, Democrats want to negotiate the price of far more drugs.

Ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, hailed the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the drugmakers’ lawsuit as a win for Medicare drug price negotiation. The law was written in a way that allows drugmakers to opt out of negotiation, keeping the drugmakers from making the claim that the government is forcing them to negotiate the price of their drugs. If they opted out of drug=price negotiations, they could not sell their drugs to people through Medicare and Medicaid.

Going forward, drugmakers are likely to explore other legal claims. For example, they might contest the government’s choice of drugs subject to price negotiation and why. And, they might challenge any government rules related to Medicare drug price negotiation.

Drug-price negotiation already has saved Medicare billions of dollars. In the first year of relying on negotiated drug prices for ten drugs alone, Medicare likely saved at least $6 billion. In year two of negotiated prices, with 15 more drug prices negotiated, Medicare saved around $12 billion. The Trump administration is negotiating prices on 15 additional drugs this year and 20 drugs next year.

To be clear, the negotiated prices of these brand-name drugs for people with Medicare are no lower than what everyone in other wealthy countries pay for them. Everyone in the US should be benefiting from them. Moreover, after generic substitutes are available, drugmakers can once again sell their drugs with negotiated prices at whatever prices the market will bear. If you are looking for lower cost drugs, check out pharmacychecker.com.

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