Drugmakers’ Group Takes Drug Discount Program Row to Eighth Cir.

A drug manufacturers’ trade group has appealed a decision that would force its members to continue supplying discounted drugs to pharmacies that distribute them to low-income people, after a federal trial court finalized its judgment on a single claim in the case.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association filed the appeal immediately after a trial judge dismissed its claim that the federal 340B drug discount program preempts an Arkansas law intended to prohibit drug makers from arbitrarily cutting off contract pharmacies’ access to low-cost medications.

The procedural step was necessary because, although Judge Billy Roy Wilson found no preemption and ...