News and Reports | March 18, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs (P4AD) filed its sixth patient-centered amicus brief defending the Medicare Negotiation Program, this time in the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals, where Teva Pharmaceuticals is appealing its failed attempt to strike down the program.
The brief underscores the real-world impact of lower prices for patients and responds to legal arguments courts have already rejected numerous times, including challenges on Fifth Amendment grounds and to the program’s grouping of multiple products with the same active ingredient under a single negotiation unit. To date, courts have ruled against the pharmaceutical industry’s legal challenges 16 times.
“Drugmakers like Teva are demanding the courts give them special treatment in order to permanently block the U.S. government from negotiating urgently needed lower prices on behalf of Americans,” said Merith Basey, CEO of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “But the courts have consistently upheld this program, and both the Trump administration and Americans across the political spectrum support it. It’s US v Pharma, and we will continue to make sure patient voices are heard in the courtrooms in defense of a program that they fought hard for and on which their lives may depend.”
Teva manufactures Austedo and Austedo XR, drugs included in the second round of negotiation that are used to treat involuntary movements associated with Huntington’s disease and tardive dyskinesia. The drugmaker’s case is part of the industry-wide legal crusade aimed at dismantling the 2022 prescription drug law’s historic price negotiation provision and restoring Big Pharma’s unchecked monopoly power.
This marks the sixth amicus brief P4AD has filed on behalf of patients. You can find the full written brief HERE.
Key Points from the Amicus Brief:
Teva Pharmaceuticals is “seeking a special rule that applies only to them — in their view, drug companies are constitutionally entitled to a different system than any other industry, one that allows them to enjoy the fruits of their lobbying campaign in perpetuity, with the federal government permanently disabled from negotiating lower prices for the drugs it buys.”
“The Negotiation Program does not give the Executive Branch some unprecedented power to override natural market mechanisms, but rather restores to Medicare the same negotiating authority that other government purchasers have always possessed and that the Constitution has never been thought to prohibit.”
The system in effect before the Negotiation Program — one that barred Medicare from negotiating with pharmaceutical corporations — was the product of an industry lobbying campaign. “The non-interference provision was an artificial constraint that departed from both normal market practices and standard government procurement methods — every other major government health program routinely negotiates drug prices, as do private insurers and pharmacy benefit managers.”
P4AD’s amicus brief also underscores how Medicare price negotiation will deliver savings to patients in our community, including:
Aly Elbaga, a retired chemist in New Jersey, takes Eliquis, which eats up nearly half of his monthly income. He often skips doses to afford rent and food. Eliquis is one of the 10 drugs in the first round of negotiation, with lower prices set to take effect in 2026.
Trevor Watts, a retired glazier in Oregon and Habitat for Humanity volunteer, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at 62. His medication costs up to $161 for a 30-day supply, forcing him to delay medical care and home repairs — including a leaky roof that still drips into his entryway.
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Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only national patient advocacy organization focused exclusively on policies that lower prescription drug prices. We empower and mobilize patients by amplifying their experiences with high drug prices to hold those in power to account and fight to shape and achieve system-changing policies that make prescription drugs affordable for all people in the United States. P4AD does not accept funding from organizations that profit from the development and distribution of drugs. To learn more, visit PatientsForAffordableDrugs.org