Judges reject 2 cases challenging Medicare negotiation, The Hill reports

U.S. judges in Texas and Connecticut have ruled against arguments challenging the constitutionality of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, delivering more blows to the pharmaceutical industry this week after an appeals court upheld the dismissal of a similar case, The Hill’s Joseph Choi reports. In Connecticut, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision granted by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea last year against Boehringer Ingelheim, who found that Boehringer Ingelheim could not demonstrate irreparable harm as a result of Medicare negotiations and also agreed with the federal government that the program did not violate laws such as the Medicare Act or the Administrative Procedures Act. In Texas, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra dismissed the lawsuit brought forward by the PhRMA trade group with prejudice, closing the case. Publicly traded companies in the space include CVS Health (CVS), Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Elevance Health (ELV), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH) and UnitedHealth (UNH).