LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a news conference on Wednesday that his office was suing multiple drug companies for “unconscionable” conduct.
Griffin explained that the drug companies were engaging in practices that gave them access to the Medicare and Medicaid market without providing the federally mandated discounts that come with access to that market.
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The discount program, called “304B,” became federal law in 1992. In 2021, Arkansas passed Act 1103, designed to protect the discounts for care providers, such as hospitals, under 304B by closing “loopholes” the drug companies were using to avoid paying them, Griffin said.
Arkansas was the first state in the nation to pass an act like 1103, the attorney general said. Drug companies sued to block it, Griffin said, but the state won against all challenges, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, cementing it into law.
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Still, Griffin said, the drug companies created rules to continue blocking access to 340B discounts, leading to the need for the lawsuit…