Boehringer Ingelheim files suit to block drug price negotiations. Is the fight ultimately headed for the Supreme Court?

Boehringer In­gel­heim is the lat­est phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny to sue the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment over the In­fla­tion Re­duc­tion Act in a fight some drug pric­ing ex­perts say will like­ly make it to the Supreme Court.

The law­suits seek to block an IRA pro­gram that will al­low Medicare to ne­go­ti­ate drug prices, with drug­mak­ers ar­gu­ing the leg­is­la­tion is un­con­sti­tu­tion­al and could stymie in­no­va­tion.

Boehringer’s law­suit, filed Fri­day in Con­necti­cut fed­er­al court, al­leges the IRA vi­o­lates the First, Fifth and Eighth Amend­ments by tak­ing the com­pa­ny’s prop­er­ty with­out due process and fair com­pen­sa­tion, im­pos­ing ex­ces­sive fines and “com­pelling” its speech. Mer­ck, Bris­tol My­ers Squibb, John­son & John­son’s Janssen, Astel­las and PhRMA have filed sim­i­lar law­suits.

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