Drugmakers Urge Appeals Court to Limit ‘Off the Rails’ Discounts

Drug manufacturers should be allowed to impose limits on the steep discounts they offer off-site pharmacies under a federal program designed to help low-income patients afford drugs, two pharmaceutical companies told the D.C. Circuit.

The consolidated lawsuit, filed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. and United Therapeutics Corp., is one of the many challenges drugmakers have brought against the Department of Health and Human Services. Lower courts have split on the letters the HHS sent threatening to penalize manufacturers for limiting discounts they offered to pharmacies that contract with 340B health providers.

“The program has gone off the rails,” United Therapeutics ...