State defends prescription plan Industry fighting Maine’s implementation of new Rx program

Maine has filed papers urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject an industry challenge to the state’s landmark prescription drug law that sets the stage for price controls if negotiations fail to drive down prices.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America asked the court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the Maine Rx program enacted by the Legislature more than a year ago.

The law cannot be implemented until it works its way through the courts, and it could take months before the Supreme Court decides whether to hear PhRMA’s appeal.

The trade group had argued that the Maine Rx program unconstitutionally regulates transactions outside the state’s borders and conflicts with federal Medicaid law.

The law allows Maine to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices for approximately 325,000 residents who lack insurance for prescription drugs. It also allows the state to impose price controls in three years if negotiations don’t lead to steep price reductions.

In urging the court to hear the appeal, PhRMA said 40 other states are considering price-related drug legislation.

“Were this court to decline review, it would give these dozens of states a green light to copy Maine’s program, rapidly multiplying the constitutional and commercial harms that the Maine Rx program inflicts, and leading to proliferating litigation in the lower courts,” the group’s lawyers wrote in urging the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Maine lawyers led by Attorney General Steven Rowe replied that the legislative activity “is hardly a groundswell.”

PhRMA won the first round of the legal battle when U.S. District Judge Brock Hornby blocked enforcement of the law, concluding that the state had overstepped its authority.

But in May, a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the decision.

The high court’s term starts in October and if the justices decide to hear the case, a decision would be expected by June.