Nevada officials have crafted a draft regulation that would allow companies to mark certain diabetes drugs pricing data as confidential when they begin complying with a new transparency law this coming spring.
The move by the state Department of Health and Human Services appears designed to deflect a lawsuit filed recently by two pharmaceutical industry trade groups, that argued the law is unconstitutional and robs drug makers of their right to protect trade secrets. The law was adopted last summer and the draft regulations were released to provide guidance for companies, including pharmacy benefit managers.
State officials maintain the regulation does not actually concede that any information is a trade secret, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Instead, drug makers would have to go to court to protect trade secrets if anyone filed a public information request for company data. In this way, the state hopes to avoid becoming a party to a lawsuit, but would still have to abide by any decision.
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