Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, right, shakes hands with Judge Thomas Rose of the U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio after taking his oath of office, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, in Cedarville, Ohio.
John Minchillo | AP
A federal judge on Friday withdrew from a case that might block Medicare from negotiating over drug prices, just hours after a watchdog group revealed his ownership of stock in two pharmaceutical corporations that may be directly impacted by the brand new program.
Judge Thomas M. Rose of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio withdrew from the case on the identical day that the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit, sent him a letter raising questions on his ownership of stock in Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.
“Given the ethics concerns that your apparent conflict of monetary interests within the pharmaceutical industry raise, we call on you to recuse yourself,” wrote the group.
J&J’s blood thinner Xarelto and AstraZeneca’s Type 2 diabetes drug Farxiga are among the many 10 drugs that can be subject to cost negotiations this 12 months, in accordance with a listing unveiled Tuesday by the Biden administration.
Rose, who was appointed by Republican president George W. Bush, owns between $15,000 and $50,000 value of J&J stock, and shares in AstraZeneca value as much as $15,000, in accordance with his 2022 financial disclosure form. He also owns Moderna stock value between $15,000 and $50,000, the filing shows.
Until he withdrew on Friday, Rose was the presiding judge in a lawsuit brought in June by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS). The suit asked the court to rule that for Medicare to barter drug prices can be unconstitutional.
The pharmaceutical industry has unleashed a torrent of lawsuits this summer in an effort to strip Medicare of its latest powers. Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca and the drugmaker lobby PhRMA have all filed complaints in numerous districts courts.
Legal experts say the drugmakers are scattering their complaints across the country to extend the percentages that the litigation will ultimately find yourself before the Supreme Court.
Merck CEO Robert Davis confirmed on an earnings call earlier this month that the corporate plans to take its lawsuit all of the solution to the high court.
“As we glance forward, we will take this to the fullest, which suggests we’ll take it through District Court and, if need be, into Circuit Court and ultimately to the Supreme Court,” Davis said. “So, really that is the strategy.”
The Chamber had asked Rose to dam this system by Oct. 1, the deadline set for drugmakers to sign agreements to take part in the negotiations.