BATON ROUGE — A federal judge has signed papers ending two of Louisiana's lawsuits against CVS Health.

A Lafayette federal judge this week dismissed claims without prejudice, which means they could be filed again. U.S. District Judge David C. Joseph also adopted a magistrate's recommendation that the matter not be sent back to a state court, where it was initially filed this past summer .

Last month, Joseph had given the state three weeks to respond to CVS' arguments that the state lacked "personal jurisdiction" and that the state had failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted.

On the jurisdiction question, the state responded by saying CVS' trade practices harmed independent pharmacies in Louisiana and that the attorney general's office was acting to protect the health

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