A Minnesota law was found by the district court and appeals court to unlawfully regulate prices in other states
WASHINGTON, DC (June 12, 2025) – The Association for Accessible Medicines today commented on the unanimous decision in its favor by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The appellate court affirmed the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction against a Minnesota law passed in May 2023, finding that the law violates the dormant Commerce Clause.
“AAM is very pleased that the Eighth Circuit, like the district court in Minnesota and every other court that has confronted this question, has ruled that states may not control prices charged outside their borders,” said John Murphy III, President and CEO of AAM. “AAM and its members work every day to lower drug prices by making available lower-cost generic and biosimilar alternatives, and we look forward to continuing to work with states on policies that expedite patient access to these critical medicines.”
In July 2023, AAM filed suit on behalf of its members against Minnesota and requested that the district court enjoin the Attorney General from enforcing the price-control provisions of the Minnesota law. The district court granted a preliminary injunction in December 2023. The Eighth Circuit ruling states, “The district court granted AAM’s motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that the Act likely violated the dormant Commerce Clause. We affirm.”
The Minnesota law was intended to lower drug costs, but conspicuously only applied to generics, despite the Attorney General’s Advisory Taskforce acknowledging that “the most egregious examples are found in the branded and specialty drug markets.”
Minnesotans saved $6.2 billion from generic and biosimilar medicines in 2023 according to AAM’s 2024 Annual Savings Report.
The Eighth Circuit’s ruling continued, “under the Act, Minnesota regulates the price of out-of-state transactions, insists that out-of-state manufacturers sell their drugs to wholesalers for a certain price, and ties the price of in-state products—prescription drugs—to the price that out-of-state manufacturers charge their wholesalers,” and that the Minnesota law, “could also backfire and, for example, force generic manufacturers to pull out of the market.”
Read: AAM Requests Federal Injunction to Block Minnesota’s Unconstitutional Drug Price Law
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About AAM
The Association for Accessible Medicines, your generics and biosimilars industry, is driven by the belief that access to safe, quality, effective medicine has a tremendous impact on a person’s life and the world around them. AAM represents the manufacturers of finished generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, manufacturers of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic industry. Generic pharmaceuticals are 90 percent of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. but only 13.1 percent of total drug spending.
About the Biosimilars Council
The Biosimilars Council, a division of the Association for Accessible Medicines, works to ensure a positive environment for patient access to biosimilar medicines. The Biosimilars Council is the leading source for information about the safety and efficacy of more affordable alternatives to costly brand biologic medicines. Areas of focus include public and health expert education, government affairs, legal affairs, and regulatory policy. More information is available at biosimilarscouncil.org.
