Amgen Wins Court Block on Colorado Drug Price Cap
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- U.S. judge blocked a Colorado state panel from capping the price of Amgen's Enbrel, ruling the drugmaker is "likely to be significantly harmed" — a victory for the pharmaceutical industry.
- The ruling pauses a first-in-the-nation policy by the Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Board, created four years ago and empowered to set upper payment limits on selected drugs for most state residents.
- A new CMS 18-month trial will offer Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound as a standalone weight-loss treatment to Medicare patients 65+ at just $50 per month.
- Millions more Americans are expected to qualify, marking a sharp shift from recent years when patients faced steep out-of-pocket costs for obesity medicines with or without insurance.
Why it matters: The Colorado ruling preserves drugmaker pricing authority against state affordability boards, potentially chilling similar efforts in other states, while the new Medicare program could expand the fast-growing obesity drug market to millions of seniors who previously couldn't afford these medications.
