Another state has joined the growing movement to protect rural citizens against corporations attempting to skirt federal rules.

Mississippi recently passed a law enforcing rule 340b regulations, which force pharmaceutical companies to sell vital drugs to rural health providers at discounts. Most major companies have been trying to avoid those discounts or have tried ignoring them altogether.

However, Mississippi - which has a large rural population - joined its neighbor, Louisiana, and several other states in fighting back against that.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed into law today a bill to bar drugmaker 340B contract pharmacy restrictions and certain 340B-specific pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) policies.

Reeves signed the bill, H.B.278, after it passed the state senate, 49-2, on April 3, and the state house, 83-31, on March 14. The law, which prohibits drug manufacturers from restricting 340B drug access to contract pharmacies of any type of covered entity in the state and bars PBMs from limiting reimbursement or adding terms and conditions on pharmacies based on their 340B status, will take effect July 1.

Mississippi joins Arkansas, Louisiana, and West Virginia as the only states to enact 340B contract pharmacy access laws. It also is one of 28 states to enact laws prohibiting certain 340B-specific PBM policies, though the language and scope of those laws vary considerably.

We've covered the 340B program here at RedState repeatedly, and this is the latest example of states fighting back against Big Pharma.

During last year's legislative session, the Louisiana House passed a similar bill with a 97-2 vote, while the Louisiana Senate unanimously voted for it, blocking Big Pharma from denying or interfering with drug discounts afforded to providers of this type and their contract pharmacies under decades-old federal law. On June 19, 2023, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the bill into law.

The bill signing by Bel Edwards is interesting because it represents a Democrat (albeit a conservative, Southern one) moving to protect the 340B drug discount program at a time when it has been under siege from blue states including California and New York.

One pharmaceutical company, AbbVie, sued Louisiana for it.

Pharma company AbbVie sued the state of Louisiana over the Defending Affordable Prescription Drug Costs statute. The day before this suit was filed, I actually covered here the fact that many Pharma companies had to be forced by the government to provide refunds to contract pharmacies and hospitals. 

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The reason? They had refused to offer legally required discounts and therefore overcharged these institutions.

Now these very same pharmaceutical companies are suing Louisiana in order to once again, not offer the required discounts. Their claim in the complaint, filed on September 21, is that the Louisiana law (Act 358) passed in June violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

Mississippi may face similar challenges. Big Pharma has been doing everything it can to stop 340b from being enforced, lobbying officials at the state and federal levels. 

However, kudos to Mississippi for standing up to the corporate pressure and serving the needs of its rural and low-income citizens.