Springfield, Ill. — The Illinois Primary Health Care Association (IPHCA) filed a motion to intervene in the federal lawsuits that drug manufacturers brought to block House Bill 2371, the Illinois law protecting community health centers’ access to discounted medications through the 340B program.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed HB 2371 on August 7. Drug manufacturers sued Attorney General Kwame Raoul that same day, with several more filing their own suits within a week. All five cases are now before one judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Under HB 2371, drug companies can no longer restrict or deny 340B pricing on medications dispensed through a health center’s contract pharmacies. They also can’t make the discount depend on claims data that state and federal law don’t require. The bill unanimously passed the Senate and the House 113 to 1.
The Attorney General’s office is defending the law, and IPHCA appreciates that work. Health centers are the ones who would lose money and services if the manufacturers win, though, and IPHCA believes the court should hear about that directly from them.
“Health centers have a lot riding on these cases,” said Ollie Idowu, President and CEO of IPHCA. “Since 2020, drug companies have been cutting off discounts at the neighborhood pharmacies where many of our patients fill their prescriptions. The General Assembly put a stop to it this summer, and the manufacturers sued the same day the governor signed the bill. We want the court to hear directly from the people who will feel it if this law is struck down.”
Illinois health centers put their 340B savings back into patient care. The savings keep prescriptions affordable for patients who are uninsured or can’t manage a copay, and they pay for things grants and Medicaid don’t fully fund. Most centers don’t run an in-house pharmacy at all, so a contract pharmacy is how their patients get medications close to home.
“We’d much rather spend this time on patient care,” Idowu said. “But if drug companies want a federal judge to decide what happens to health center patients in Illinois, those health centers ought to be part of the case.”