Feb. 13 at 6:32 PM
US Federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a major pharmaceutical industry trade association challenging a new program that allows Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies for selected costly drugs arguing that the program was unconstitutional.
The ruling marked another victory for the Biden admin in its defense of the negotiation program, one of President Biden's signature initiatives & part of the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law in 2022.
The program aims to save
$25B annually by 2031 by requiring drugmakers to negotiate the prices of selected expensive drugs with the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service, which oversees Medicare.
Drugmakers that refuse to participate must either pay heavy fines or withdraw altogether from Medicare, which covers 66M Americans & accounts for a large share of US prescription drug spending.
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