Federal Court Rejects AstraZeneca’s Bid to Halt Drug Price Negotiations
Washington, D.C. – Today a federal judge in Delaware dismissed AstraZeneca’s challenge to the drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“The Inflation Reduction Act imposes some modest restraints on Big Pharma’s ability to price gouge patients and taxpayers – modest, but still enough to save $100 billion over the next decade. In response, Big Pharma has launched a flurry of preposterous lawsuits against the Medicare drug negotiation provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“As Public Citizen has argued in amicus briefs, drug corporations have no constitutional right to price gouge Medicare, contrary to Big Pharma’s claims.
“Today, a federal judge agreed. In a ruling dismissing the case filed by AstraZeneca, the judge wrote, ‘No one, however, is entitled to sell the Government drugs at prices the Government won’t agree to pay.’
“Today’s ruling should be a signal to Big Pharma to drop its far-fetched lawsuits and accept that the era of Medicare price negotiation is here to stay. Of course, we expect no such thing. We do expect, however, that today’s decision is the first of many rejecting Big Pharma’s attack on the Act’s effort to rein in exorbitant prescription drug prices.”