Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc. sued the Biden administration on Tuesday over its “Drug Price Negotiation Program,” arguing it violates the Constitution by forcing companies to enter into agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on pain of financial penalty.
The program, approved through the Inflation Reduction Act, enables the HHS to negotiate prices for high-cost prescription drugs, imposing an excise tax on companies that “refuse to negotiate.” The lawsuit alleges the program violates the Fifth Amendment by taking private property without providing “just compensation,” and the First Amendment by compelling companies to “legitimize government extortion” and participate in “political deception.”
The program is “a sham” that involves “neither genuine ‘negotiations’ nor real ‘agreements,’” the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleges.
“Rather, once HHS unilaterally selects a drug for inclusion in the program, its manufacturer is compelled to sign an ‘agreement’ promising to sell the drug to Medicare beneficiaries at whatever ‘fair’ price the agency dictates, which must represent at least a 25% to 60% discount,” the lawsuit states.
Joe Grogan, nonresident senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center, called the program “a price fixing regime a Soviet bureaucrat would be proud of.”
“This slow rolling government takeover of the pharmaceutical industry will strangle innovation, denying essential medicines to patients desperate for newer, more effective treatments,” Grogan said in a statement.
The HHS intends to launch the program on September 1 with the publication of its first ten “negotiation-eligible drugs.” Merck believes its anti-diabetes drug, Januvia, will be one of those chosen in September, per the lawsuit. In an open letter published Tuesday, Merck said that the program will have “devastating consequences for millions of patients in need” by limiting innovation.
“Under the IRA, the government will take Merck’s patented innovations by coercing the company to provide third parties with access at prices the government sets,” the company wrote.
Josh Blackman, professor of law at the South Texas College of Law Houston, said in a statement that the government cannot “force pharmaceutical companies to ‘sell’ their patented drugs.”
“This new mandate borders on extortion and is likely unconstitutional,” he said.
The HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
- Judge is imposing double standard by gagging Trump but giving Michael Cohen free rein, legal experts say - April 23, 2024
- Trump defense attorney says Bragg’s charges are really just 34 ‘pieces of paper’ - April 22, 2024
- Prosecutor paints Trump Manhattan case as ‘election conspiracy’ during opening statement - April 22, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!
