Days after a New Jersey federal judge tossed their lawsuits against the Inflation Reduction Act, Johnson & Johnson has followed Bristol Myers Squibb and filed an appeal.
As Bristol Myers did on Monday, J&J filed on Tuesday to appeal Judge Zahid Quraishi’s decision to the federal Third Circuit. Quraishi’s summary judgment on Monday marked the federal government’s fourth court win, after the rejection of two cases brought earlier this year by AstraZeneca and a handful of organizations, including industry trade group PhRMA. Both PhRMA and AstraZeneca have also filed appeals.
The latest appeals were widely expected, as several pharma companies race to stop Medicare price negotiations that will go into effect in 2026.
“The companies are looking to quickly appeal and move beyond the district court stage in hopes that they have more luck up in the appellate courts,” Zachary Baron, an expert on health policy and law at Georgetown University, told Endpoints News.
In his ruling, Quraishi rejected constitutional arguments at the core of Bristol Myers and J&J’s cases, writing that the Medicare negotiations don’t constitute a physical taking of property or a violation of free speech. Merck and Boehringer Ingelheim made similar arguments in separate cases playing out in other states.
“I think it’s fair to characterize it as a pretty sound rejection of the legal theories that the companies were offering,” Baron said Wednesday. “I would expect we’ll see, probably pretty shortly, that the Department of Justice will look to flag this opinion for the judges in the other cases.”