Supreme Court rebuffs pharma challenge to Biden-era drug price
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a pharmaceutical industry challenge to a plan to curb Medicare drug prices adopted during Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration that drugmakers argued illegally forces them to accept steep discounts and jeopardizes innovation.
The justices turned away appeals by Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheim. They left in place decisions by lower courts rejecting various legal claims against the drug price negotiation plan, which was part of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Aiming to rein in the rising cost of prescription drugs, the law targets for price negotiation certain medications that have resulted in high expenditures for Medicare, the U.S. government health insurance program for people 65 or older.
The plan could impact costs for patients as drug coverage affects out-of-pocket payments and premiums for Medicare beneficiaries. Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than people in any other nation.
The law requires a drugmaker to negotiate a maximum price for specific medicines directly with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that runs Medicare, or withdraw all of its drugs from those programs. Failure to reach an agreement on price can result in steep daily excise taxes.
Despite multiple lawsuits, the first negotiated prices on 10 drugs went into effect this year.
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration is defending against the industry’s challenges and cited the plan as part of its efforts to reduce prescription drug costs.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, CMS is taking strong action to target the most expensive drugs in Medicare,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in January, touting the latest drugs selected for negotiation.
The six companies whose appeals are before the Supreme Court sued after CMS targeted their medications for price curbs. They made various legal claims, many grounded in their contention that the drug pricing plan is not a negotiation at all, but rather a scheme to impose upon them government-dictated price controls.
The drugmakers variously argued that the plan violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment by undermining their due process rights or taking their property without compensation, and the First Amendment guarantee of free speech by forcing them to convey the government’s views on what constitutes fair drug prices.
Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company whose insulin products were targeted by Medicare, also argued that the law improperly delegates legislative authority to an executive branch agency, violating the Constitution’s separation of powers among the different branches of government.
The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the U.S. government in five of the companies’ lawsuits, while the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also sided with the government in the case of German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim.
Drugs site TrumpRx to list 600 generics as Trump targets lower prices
Trump said on Monday that TrumpRx.gov, a government-backed website that lists discounted prescription drugs, will begin featuring generic medicines, including widely used drugs such as cholesterol treatment atorvastatin and diabetes drug metformin.
More than 600 generics will be available through the website, Trump said, part of an effort by the administration to expand access to lower-cost medicines.
TrumpRx, launched in January, is part of Trump’s most-favored-nation pricing deals with drugmakers aimed at lowering prescription drug costs to levels seen in other developed nations. It initially only featured branded medicines. The site does not sell drugs directly but rather sends patients to other sites to buy the medicines.
More than 90% of medicines sold in the U.S. are generics, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“I’m thrilled to announce that we’re increasing the number of drugs available on TrumpRx by nearly seven times, adding over 600 affordable generics to the website,” Trump said at a White House event, attended by billionaire Mark Cuban.
Cuban sells discounted medicines directly to consumers through his Cost Plus Drugs online pharmacy.
The generics and their prices will be listed separately from discounts on high-cost branded drugs, the White House said. Prices at local pharmacies and discounts from Amazon Pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, and GoodRx will be integrated into TrumpRx.
Controlled substances and drugs with FDA-mandated restrictions known as risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, or REMS, will not be available on the website, nor will drugs not commonly sold directly to consumers.
Trump secured agreements with 17 major pharmaceutical companies to align U.S. prescription prices with those in other developed nations in exchange for three-year tariff exemptions on imports.
The administration says the deal is expected to generate $64.3 billion in federal and state savings in the next 10 years.
While Trump has pledged to make prescription drugs cheaper for Americans than anywhere in the world, prices on the website are not lower than those paid in the United Kingdom, according to a Reuters comparison of publicly available prices.
How much consumers will save is uncertain. The website is targeted at consumers looking to buy drugs without using insurance, meaning that most purchases would not count toward patients’ insurance deductibles.
Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 8:25 AM.