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Merck & Co. Files First IRA Suit, Signaling Industry Is Ready To Fight

 
• By Sue Sutter and Jessica Merrill

Coming less than three months before the statutory deadline for CMS to publish the initial list of drugs, Merck’s lawsuit calls US Medicare drug price negotiations ‘extortion’ in a complaint that could be the first of more legal pushback to follow.

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MERCK’S SUIT CALLS THE IRA A ‘VORTEX OF FORCED BELOW-MARKET SALES’ WITH ‘NO EVIDENT MEANS OF ESCAPE.’ • Source: Shutterstock

Merck & Co., Inc. has taken the first legal action to fight a new Medicare drug price negotiation program that is being implemented as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Changing certain elements of the program or delaying its implementation altogether would be victory for industry.

Key Takeaways

  • Merck’s lawsuit raises constitutional challenges to President Biden’s signature healthcare achievement.

  • The suit could result in delays in the implementation of law by CMS, which is supposed to release the first list of affected drugs by the beginning of September

Litigation has been considered one path industry might take in response to the passage of the landmark drug pricing law last year, but which company might move first and on what grounds were uncertain

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