Novartis, AbbVie Score Win to Block West Virginia Drug Limit Law

 

• Judge says industry’s ‘harms are more than speculative’
• Manufacturers, state at odds over contract pharmacy statute

The pharmaceutical industry notched a victory in its fight against a West Virginia law requiring it to distribute discounted drugs to an unlimited number of pharmacies under the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program.

Novartis AG, AbbVie Inc., and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have shown that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief under West Virginia’s law (S.B. 325), Judge Thomas E. Johnston of the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia ordered Tuesday.

At issue before the court was whether S.B. 325 is preempted by federal law as it prohibits drugmakers who participate in the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program from enforcing distribution restrictions on contract pharmacies, which are used to dispense outpatient drugs for health providers that treat a disproportionate number of low-income and uninsured patients.

“The 340B Program certainly did not establish a system where the fox guards the hen house. By restricting a practice that the industry utilizes in order to take the first step toward accessing the 340B Program dispute resolution system, S.B. 325 creates an impermissible obstacle to executing the federal program,” Johnston wrote.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/novartis-abbvie-score-win-to-block-west-virginia-drug-limit-law