Eliquis maker Bristol Myers Squibb sues over Medicare plan to cut drug costs

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The maker of widely used blood thinner Eliquis on Friday sued the U.S. government over a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that would let Medicare negotiate drug prices, becoming the second major drugmaker to do so in less than two weeks.

A court filing Friday from Bristol Myers Squibb derides the new law as a “government-controlled scheme” and argues that the provision violates the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects against the government taking private property for public use without adequate compensation. Bristol Myers Squibb’s argument follows roughly the same line of reasoning used by Merck, which filed a similar lawsuit on June 6.

The new law would allow Medicare to start negotiating prices in 2026, which the White House expects to save taxpayers $25 billion annually by 2031. Medicare has until Sept. 1 to announce the first 10 high-cost drugs for which it is going to negotiate on behalf of seniors.

Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer sell Eliquis. In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, the Medicare Part D program spent $12.6 billion on the blood thinner, more than on any other drug, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

After the lawsuit was filed, Bristol Myers Squibb referred The Washington Post to a statement that characterized the new law as unconstitutional and “bad for innovation.”

Defendants named in the lawsuit include the Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Health Xavier Becerra and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the past it has defended the new law on drug price negotiations.

“There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this month.

Pharmaceutical companies argue that a reduction in drug prices would lead to less investment in the development of new therapies, a line of defense that has been echoed by drugmakers for much of the past decade.

Bristol Myers Squibb last year posted $6.3 billion in net earnings on revenue of $46.2 billion, according to financial filings. That includes $7.8 billion in U.S. revenue from Eliquis, up 21 percent from 2021.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also sued the government over the price-cutting plan.

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