AstraZeneca sues US over drug pricing laws

Drug makers are complaining that price cuts on prescription drugs will harm rare disease research. Credit: DADO RUVIC

Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca is suing the US government over a law aimed at lowering the price of prescription drugs.

The UK's largest pharmaceutical group has challenged President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allows the US government to negotiate prices on behalf of members of its national health plan, Medicare.

The new rules are expected to save Medicare $100 billion by 2031 in response to public pressure to lower drug prices for patients who are usually elderly or disabled.

However, drug manufacturers complain that price cuts prescription, reduce profits, and hinder research into new treatments.

AstraZeneca said it had already been forced to cut investments in rare diseases and cancer due to (IRA), reports Bloomberg.

The US accounted for about 40% of AstraZeneca's $44.4 billion in revenue in the past year.

The complaint follows a lawsuit taken by American pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and Boehringer Ingelheim.

David Fredrickson, executive vice president of oncology at AstraZeneca, warned of the «unforeseen consequences» of the IRA for US patients.

This includes those who have benefited from the US Orphan Drug Act, which is intended to stimulate pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for rare diseases such as Huntington's disease, ALS and Tourette's syndrome.

Mr. Fredrickson said: «Patients suffering from rare diseases and cancer depend on the development of high-risk, low-probability drugs that take many years to develop and aim for a cure.»

«If today's version law remains in effect, patients in the United States with rare diseases who have benefited from the Orphan Drug Act will have delayed access to scientific advances compared to other parts of the world.”

U.S. Department of Health Spokesperson and the Social Security Service, which oversees Medicare, said: “We will vigorously defend the President's Drug Price Negotiation Act, which already helps lower health care costs for the elderly and people with disabilities. The law is on our side.”

In recent years, AstraZeneca has spent billions of dollars expanding its rare disease expertise through a series of acquisitions, while the Anglo-Swedish group seeks new revenue streams.

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In 2021, a Cambridge-based company bought rare disease specialist Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion.