Drug Price Negotiation Deadlines Expose Medicare to Litigation

The Medicare agency risks legal challenges from the pharmaceutical industry as it scrambles to meet rapidly approaching deadlines in President Joe Biden’s landmark drug pricing law, attorneys say.

The timeline Congress set in the Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169) to begin negotiating certain drug prices are “tremendously tight” for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Jonathan Blum, the agency’s principal deputy administrator and chief operating officer. The agency has had to begin while still actively hiring economists, data analysts, and individuals with pharmaceutical industry experience to build out the agency’s new drug price negotiation team.

Industry sources ...