AbbVie is bringing its legal fight over 340B restrictions to another state.
The Chicago pharma giant on Monday filed suit in Missouri over a new state law that would keep drugmakers from imposing restrictions around 340B, a federal drug discount program created to help hospitals serving low-income populations. The program has grown significantly in recent years and as a result, some drug companies — including AbbVie — have set their own limits on discounts to third-party pharmacies, also known as contract pharmacies.
Missouri joined other states this year in passing a law that prohibits drugmakers from restricting 340B discounts to contract pharmacies. But in the lawsuit filed in Missouri federal court, AbbVie called the law unconstitutional, arguing that it “effectively gives covered entities unfettered authority to take manufacturers’ property for the benefit of private parties of their choice.”
Earlier this month, AbbVie filed separate lawsuits against similar legislation in Kansas and Minnesota. The company declined to comment on Tuesday.
“Instead of serving the covered entities’ uninsured and low-income patients, the for-profit contract pharmacies acquire manufacturers’ drugs at the federally discounted price, sell them to patients (including indigent patients) at full price, and pocket the difference,” AbbVie alleged in its Missouri complaint.
Novartis and AstraZeneca have also attempted to thwart state laws that would rein in 340B restrictions. Earlier this month, a Mississippi federal judge rejected requests for preliminary injunctions by Novartis and industry trade group PhRMA in two separate suits because they lacked “substantial likelihood of success on the merits.”