Judge blocks Trump administration rule requiring drug prices in TV ads

A person lines up their prescription bottles.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Just hours before the regulation was set to go into effect, a federal judge ruled on Monday that the Trump administration does not have the legal authority to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose drug prices in television ads.

The rule was announced in May by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said if drugmakers had to list their prices on television, they would keep them as low as possible to avoid embarrassment. Instead, Merck & Co., Eli Lilly and Co., and Amgen Inc. argued that by being forced to state the prices, their right to free speech was being violated.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.