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Merck accuses the US Department of Health of violating the Constitution due to the inflation law
American Merck filed an appeal with the District Court of the District of Columbia, accusing the US Department of Health and several other government agencies of violating the country's Constitution. The company, in particular, opposes a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that allows adjustments in the cost of certain drugs under the auspices of Medicare.
We're talking about costly drugs purchased through the Medicare programme. The country's authorities have granted themselves the authority to levy excise taxes on medicines for pharmaceutical companies that refuse to lower their prices. Negotiations are currently underway to reduce the prices of ten medications, including Merck's anticancer drug Keytruda and the diabetes medication Januvia.
"This is not a bargain. "This is extortion," the pharmaceutical company's management claims in its lawsuit. According to Merck, the provision of the law violates the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that "private property may not be taken for public use without fair compensation." The plaintiff also believes that the right to free expression has been violated because, in order to avoid sanctions, companies will be forced to sign an agreement to sell medicines at below-market prices against their will, resulting in lower profits and less investment in innovative developments.
Prices for new cancer drugs increased by 53% in the United States over a five-year period, from 2017 to 2021. Cancer treatment is primarily funded by taxpayer-funded programmes such as Medicare.