The logo of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little REFILE - CORRECTING LOCATION

By Diana Novak Jones

CHICAGO (Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Monday rejected Novo Nordisk's challenge to the U.S. government’s program that gives its Medicare health insurance plan the power to negotiate lower drug prices, the latest in a barrage of lawsuits brought by drugmakers to fail.

The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing the Danish drugmaker’s challenge to the program and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' selection of six of its insulin products for price negotiations.

A unanimous three-judge panel rejected Novo’s constitutional challenges to the program, which was part of Democratic former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, and said the law specifically bars courts from reviewing the drugs selected.

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said the company was assessing its options to appeal the ruling.

A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump has put pressure on drugmakers to lower their prices in recent months, as Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than any other nation.

The Inflation Reduction Act requires pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices with Medicare, which covers 66 million people. The negotiations got under way despite the drugmakers' lawsuits, with the initial round of drug prices set to take effect next year.

Novo is among several pharmaceutical companies to challenge the program, claiming it violated its constitutional rights to due process and free speech. Nearly all have failed.

In May, the 3rd Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling dismissing AstraZeneca's challenge, saying the company had no protected constitutional right to sell its drugs to the government at a price higher than what it wants to pay. In September, the court ruled similarly in challenges brought by Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis, court records show.

Monday’s ruling, authored by Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, pointed to the court’s earlier precedents to reject Novo’s constitutional challenges.

Hardiman was joined on the panel by Circuit judges Peter Phipps, who was appointed by Trump, and Arianna Freeman, a Biden appointee.

The case is Novo Nordisk v. HHS et al, case number 24-2510 in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

For Novo Nordisk: Ashley Parrish of King & Spalding

For HHS: Lindsey Powell of the U.S. Department of Justice

(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)