Fed­er­al judge scut­tles Trump's rule man­dat­ing drug prices in TV ads

The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has en­dured a set­back af­ter a fed­er­al court over­turned a rul­ing — oblig­at­ing drug man­u­fac­tur­ers to dis­close the list price of their ther­a­pies in tele­vi­sion ad­verts — hours be­fore it was stip­u­lat­ed to go in­to ef­fect.

In May, the HHS pub­lished a fi­nal rul­ing re­quir­ing drug­mak­ers to di­vulge the whole­sale ac­qui­si­tion cost— of a 30-day sup­ply of the drug — in tv ads in a bid to en­hance price trans­paren­cy in the Unit­ed States. The phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­dus­try has ve­he­ment­ly op­posed the rule, as­sert­ing that list prices are not what a typ­i­cal pa­tient in the Unit­ed States pays for treat­ment — that num­ber is typ­i­cal­ly de­ter­mined by the type of (or lack there­of) in­sur­ance cov­er­age, de­ductibles and out-of-pock­et costs. Al­though there is truth to that claim, the move was con­sid­ered sym­bol­ic in the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s health­care agen­da to hold drug­mak­ers ac­count­able in a cli­mate where sky­rock­et­ing drug prices have in­censed Amer­i­cans on both sides of the aisle.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER