J&J and Astel­las pile on two more bio­phar­ma in­dus­try law­suits over CMS drug price ne­go­ti­a­tions

John­son & John­son and Astel­las are join­ing with their phar­ma heavy­weight peers Bris­tol My­ers Squibb, Mer­ck, in­dus­try group PhRMA and the US Cham­ber of Com­merce in chal­leng­ing the In­fla­tion Re­duc­tion Act’s new drug price ne­go­ti­a­tions, which Astel­las is call­ing “price-set­ting” that will “dis­cour­age pri­vate-sec­tor in­vest­ment in the dis­cov­ery and de­vel­op­ment of new med­i­cines.”

Both com­pa­nies went af­ter the law’s vi­o­la­tions of the First and Fifth Amend­ments to the Con­sti­tu­tion, with J&J say­ing in its fil­ing to­day in New Jer­sey dis­trict court that CMS’ “in­no­va­tion-dam­ag­ing scheme is un­con­sti­tu­tion­al.” Xarel­to, Janssen’s treat­ment for blood clots and re­duc­ing the risk of stroke, will like­ly be among the first 10 drugs se­lect­ed for ne­go­ti­a­tion come Sep­tem­ber, J&J said.

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