Judith Waltz Discusses Legal Challenges Surrounding Negotiated Drug Prices
Foley & Lardner LLP partner Judith Waltz is quoted in the PharmaVoice article, “Could pharma’s legal attack on the IRA succeed in killing price negotiations?,” about the legal challenges brought by the pharmaceutical industry following Medicare’s newfound mandate to negotiate drug prices.
Waltz, who is co-chair of Foley’s Health Care Practice, said “There is always criticism of CMS’ implementation of any statute, irrespective of the topic or how it is done.”
About the nearly dozen lawsuits, Waltz said, “They have spread these cases across the country, which is a smart strategy because you may end up with [a judge who] is more sympathetic or sees the law in a different way.” As some of the cases continue and negotiations go back and forth, she points out that, “The longer things go on, the weaker their argument becomes. The delay does not necessarily work in their favor, unless they can get that stopped in the interim, because things are moving pretty quickly right now. And the government will argue the sky did not fall.” However, it is difficult to say if the pharmaceutical industry will be successful and Waltz says that, “Having one case tossed is not a good sign for the rest of them, but it is also not necessarily a bad sign.”
