The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals by pharmaceutical companies that sought to block Medicare drug price negotiations with the federal government, according to Associated Press reporting. The justices did not comment, and the action left intact rulings from a federal appeals court in Philadelphia that had dismissed the manufacturers’ claims.
The Medicare negotiation program was created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a law that capped years of debate over whether the federal government should be allowed to negotiate directly with drugmakers. The statute required the government to negotiate prices for certain high-cost drugs in Medicare for older adults on an annual basis, with the first negotiated deals set to go into effect in 2026.
AP reported that no Republican voted for the legislation when it passed and that it was signed by Democratic President Joe Biden. The AP account also said Republicans were harshly critical of parts of the law and that Republican President Donald Trump had rolled back programs favoring alternative energy sources, while the administration nevertheless embraced the negotiations’ authority to bring drugmakers to the negotiating table.
The AP report said the government had already negotiated prices for 25 prescription drugs covered by Medicare. It singled out popular GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs—Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy—as examples covered by the negotiated pricing so far.
In January, the administration announced drugs targeted for a third round of the program, which would bring the total number of drugs with lower prices for Medicare enrollees to 40, the AP said. The report also noted that pharmaceutical companies have pushed back strongly on the program, arguing that policymakers who want to reduce costs should instead focus on reins in insurers and third-party pharmacy benefit managers.
The AP said that without court intervention, stopping the program may require action from Congress. The report described the relevant statute as not specifying an end date for the Medicare negotiation program.