The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has joined two other associations in a federal lawsuit challenging the price-setting provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act.

PhRMA, along with the Global Colon Cancer Association and the National Infusion Center Association, assert that the IRA is unconstitutional, including what the groups call an excise tax threat for noncompliance to agree to prices set by the federal government. The tax can reach as high as 1,900% of a manufacturer's total U.S. revenues for a drug, they said. "It is no negotiation at all," the lawsuit said. "It is a government mandate disguised as negotiation. And it is unconstitutional, on several grounds."

The PhRMA lawsuit is the fourth challenge to price-setting provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services overseeing Medicare to start negotiating prices for a handful of high cost drugs each year starting in 2026. Previous lawsuits have been filed by Merck, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Bristol Myers Squibb.