Wampum

Maine Wins Case Over Prescription Drugs

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:40 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday gave a green light to a novel state program to force drug manufacturers to lower prices on prescription drugs, but warned that the program may not survive further court challenges.

The ruling was a defeat for drug makers who claimed that Maine's program, called Maine Rx, violates federal law.

The program, which has never taken effect, would use the state's buying power under the federal Medicaid law to cut drug prices by 25 percent for the working poor, retirees and others who do not receive health coverage or drug benefits through their jobs.

The Supreme Court's ruling does not give Maine what it really wanted, an unqualified endorsement of the drug plan. Instead, the high court said that drug makers did not adequately show why the plan should be prevented from taking effect. It has been on hold pending the court fight.

``By no means will our answer to that question finally determine the validity of Maine's Rx program,'' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court.

Spending on prescription drugs has increased by 15 percent or more annually in recent years, and more than two dozen states had urged the Supreme Court to uphold Maine's effort to hold down the escalation.

Supporters of the Maine program contend it is a response to years of inaction in Congress, which has repeatedly tried and failed to add prescription drug coverage to the federal Medicare program for the elderly.

Labor and retiree groups support the Maine approach.

The Bush administration and business groups and conservative legal organizations sided with the drug industry.

This program was developed by former state senate leader Chellie Pingree, who now heads up Common Cause. Hopefully, this is just the first victory in many such battles against corporate greed.