News Briefs: Merck Files First Legal Shot at Medicare Drug Price Negotiation

Merck & Co., Inc. filed a lawsuit on June 6 against the federal government, seeking to halt provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) related to Medicare drug price negotiations. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the first involving a pharmaceutical company challenging that part of the IRA. Starting in 2026, the government for the first time will negotiate the price of certain high-cost medications that are not subject to generic or biosimilar competition. Merck contends in its lawsuit that the drug price negotiation program “is a sham” and “is tantamount to extortion” and violates the First and Fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

A Massachusetts resident last month sued CVS Health Corp. for using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform during a job interview, the Boston Globe reported. In the class-action lawsuit, Brendan Baker alleged CVS’s use of the HireVue AI system to assess job candidates’ honesty violated Massachusetts law, which forbids employers from using a polygraph or similar tests as a condition of employment. Companies such as T-Mobile and Delta Airlines have used HireVue.