Stealth Defense: Medicare, IRS Implementation May Weaken Pharma’s Arguments Against IRA

Flexibility included in guidance issued after many IRA lawsuits were filed put some of the arguments industry has made on shakier footing, legal experts explain.

sanding wood
Executive actions have "sand[ed] some of the hardest edges off," the IRA, making challenges to Medicare Rx negotiations harder, Nicholas Bagley says. • Source: Shutterstock

Key Biden administration decisions on how to implement the US Medicare program’s new drug price negotiation authorities could help the government in its attempts to quash the pharmaceutical industry’s and other challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act program in court, legal experts say.

These decisions came in recent Medicare and Internal Revenue Service guidance that were issued after many of the industry’s challenges were filed in court.

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