J&J, Bristol Myers Ask High Court to Review US Drug Price Cuts

Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. are urging the US Supreme Court to review a Biden-era program that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical giants.

The drugmakers filed petitions asking the justices to review a federal appeals court order that dealt a blow earlier this year to their challenges against the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in September that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ negotiation program doesn’t violate their speech or property rights.

“The implications of the Third Circuit’s ruling sweep well beyond prescription drug markets by insulating federal spending programs from scrutiny,” J&J said in its petition filed Dec. 19. “If the Third Circuit’s decision stands, it will provide a roadmap for the Government to circumvent the constitutional rights of any business, individual, or organization that participates in federal benefits programs.”

A spokesperson for J&J said in an email the company “petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Inflation Reduction Act’s innovation-harming pricing provisions in order to protect our ability to develop transformative therapies for patients now and in the future.”

Bristol Myers in its request said “the stakes could not be higher” to review the case.

“Pharmaceutical manufacturers, including BMS, stand at the precipice of a revolutionary system in which the government can simply take any product it does not wish to pay for,” the drugmaker said. “It merely has to frame that exaction as a condition on access to half of the U.S. market.”

The Medicare negotiation program, created under President Joe Biden, seeks to lower drug prices through back-and-forth talks between Medicare and drugmakers.

J&J’s blood thinner Xarelto was selected for the first round of the program. Medicare also selected Bristol Myers’ blood thinner Eliquis for the first cycle.

The negotiated drug prices will go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2026. Xarelto, however, will be dropped from the list starting in 2027 due to the presence of a generic or biosimilar competitor, according to the CMS.

The petition joins AstraZeneca Plc’s pending request to the high court to also review a similar case against the program. Drug industry groups and some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have opposed the program since its early stages, but their claims that the negotiations are unconstitutional have largely been rejected by federal courts.

The Trump administration has so far been supportive of the negotiations, advancing the second cycle of the program and doubling down on efforts to reduce US drug prices in other measures.

The cases are Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S., No. 25A514, cert petition 12/19/25 and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S., No. 25A519, cert petition 12/19/25.