Virus, SCOTUS Delays Spur New Front in Oklahoma Drug Law Battle

The ongoing coronavirus health crisis and the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to postpone oral arguments prompted a federal judge in the Western District of Oklahoma to consider whether the state can resume enforcing its law regulating pharmacy benefit managers.

Judge Bernard M. Jones on Wednesday ordered the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association—a trade group representing the PBM industry—to respond to Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready’s request to resume a lawsuit over the state’s PBM law.

The order comes one day after Mulready sought permission to resume enforcing the law and restart litigation with the PCMA, which in 2019 filed a ...