WASHINGTON — Attorneys for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the federal government sparred Friday over whether drugmakers have enough say in Medicare’s new drug price negotiation program, in the first oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the new law.
The two sides debated two questions: whether the Chamber of Commerce would be sufficiently injured by the law to file a lawsuit, and whether the negotiation program was a violation of drugmakers’ due process rights.
The hearing was held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and Judge Michael Newman, a Trump nominee, presided. Newman didn’t ask any questions of the attorneys, so the hearing didn’t provide any hints about which way he might be leaning on the issues.