A U.S. appeals court upheld a ruling June 16 that struck down a rule from HHS requiring drugmakers to put the wholesale prices of their drugs in TV ads.
HHS announced the rule in May 2019. The department argued that patients deserved transparency and that forcing drugmakers to put prices in ads would incentivize them to create lower list prices.
Merck, Eli Lilly and Amgen filed a lawsuit in June 2019 challenging the lawfulness of the rule, arguing it violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the rule exceeds HHS' authority.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the drugmakers, saying that HHS lacked the authority to establish the rule and that it acted "unreasonably" in making it.