In the first major legal setback for states pursuing contract pharmacy protections, a federal district judge ruled yesterday that West Virginia officials cannot enforce the state’s contract pharmacy access law while three drug industry legal challenges play out.
U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston of the Southern District of West Virginia granted motions for preliminary injunction against West Virginia’s law (S.B.325) from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), AbbVie and Novartis. His ruling prevents the state board of pharmacy from enforcing S.B.325 while those drug industry lawsuits remain in court.
The ruling marks the drug industry’s first major legal victory in its onslaught of litigation against state laws prohibiting contract pharmacy restrictions. It’s also a significant setback for West Virginia providers, who praised the law for protecting the state’s healthcare safety-net and were anticipating state enforcement actions.
Johnston, an appointee of U.S. President George W. Bush (R) in 2006, ruled that PhRMA, AbbVie and Novartis “are likely to succeed on the merits” in their suits challenging the constitutionality of S.B.325. He also ruled they “will suffer irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction.”
Johnston’s order also came just nine days after the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy voted to begin enforcing S.B.325 and act on its growing backlog of complaints against drugmakers for allegedly violating the law. Though S.B.325 took effect on June 6, the board had previously self-imposed a stay on enforcement amid the drug industry litigation.
Setback for 340B Providers
PhRMA and individual drugmakers have filed more than two dozen lawsuits against the eight states to have enacted contract pharmacy access laws. Until Johnston’s ruling, however, every major federal court decision had been in favor of those states.
Most notably, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Arkansas’ contract pharmacy access law on March 12 against a constitutional challenge from PhRMA. The U.S. Supreme Court then declined to take up PhRMA’s appeal on Dec. 9.
Meanwhile, a federal district judge in Louisiana dismissed three separate drug industry lawsuits against Louisiana’s 340B law on Sept. 30, and federal district judges in Maryland and Mississippi have denied multiple drug industry motions to block similar laws from taking effect.
In response to state laws prohibiting drugmaker contract pharmacy access laws, dozens of drugmakers have fully or partially exempted providers in those states from their restrictions. According to 340B Report’s tracker, 12 drugmakers had done so in West Virginia.
