As the Trump administration advances plans to bring its “most favored nation” drug pricing model to Medicare Part B, the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbying group is pushing back in court.
In a new lawsuit (PDF), filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) took issue with the administration’s GLOBE model, which was finalized last week and is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
The GLOBE, or Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing model, will use an alternative approach to calculating drug inflation rebates in Medicare Part B, which is concerned with therapies given in healthcare settings. The model would see regulators use international pricing information to set a benchmark that reflects costs paid in countries with similar economic positioning—an effort to tamp down on steep drug prices in the United States.
While the focus on Medicare Part B is new, the overall MFN philosophy of tying U.S. drug costs to those paid in a basket of high-income comparator countries is not.
Since the administration returned to office last year, many large and medium-sized drugmakers have made highly public-facing deals with the White House, pledging to implement “most favored nation” pricing across their portfolios, alongside manufacturing and R&D commitments, in exchange for broad immunity from President Trump’s drug import tariffs.
But bringing the MFN policies into Medicare Part B is both unlawful and exceeds the statutory authority of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, PhRMA argued in an Oct.
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