The negotiations don’t require drugmakers to “set aside, keep or otherwise reserve any of their drugs” for the use of the government or Medicare beneficiaries, he wrote. Quraishi added the talks don’t force manufacturers to physically transmit or transport drugs at a new negotiated price.
“Selling to Medicare may be less profitable than it was before the institution of the Program, but that does not make [J&J and Bristol Myers Squibb’s] decision to participate any less voluntary,” Quraishi wrote. “For the reasons provided, the Court concludes that the Program does not result in a physical taking nor direct appropriation” of medications from the two drugmakers.
