Legal experts say some IRA challenges are ‘weaker than others’

Drug­mak­ers have cit­ed a range of con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges in their broad fight to block the Medicare ne­go­ti­a­tion pro­vi­sions of the In­fla­tion Re­duc­tion Act, some of which “are weak­er than oth­ers,” ac­cord­ing to le­gal ex­perts.

The new law re­quires drug­mak­ers to par­tic­i­pate in Medicare price ne­go­ti­a­tions, or else pay a steep fine or risk los­ing Medicare and Med­ic­aid cov­er­age for their ther­a­pies. Mer­ck was the first to sue the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment in June, fol­lowed by a hand­ful of oth­er man­u­fac­tur­ers, PhRMA and the Cham­ber of Com­merce. The ar­gu­ments have said the IRA vi­o­lates sev­er­al amend­ments by com­pelling the com­pa­nies’ speech, im­pos­ing ex­ces­sive fines, tak­ing pri­vate prop­er­ty with­out due process and fair com­pen­sa­tion, and more.

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