Supreme Court Affirms Jurisdiction, Moves to Expedite State Drug Price Controls Proposal

This week a divided Ohio Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act challenge.  At issue is whether drug price control activists may proceed with a proposed statutory initiative in 2016.  Earlier this year, the OMA filed suit to deter the ballot issue from proceeding citing fraudulent petition collection practices and policy concerns over placing price controls on manufactured products (pharmaceuticals in this is case) in the Ohio Revised Code through the initiated statute process.

In its ruling, the court wisely rejected procedural maneuvers by drug pricing activists to limit the court’s jurisdiction over the ballot proposal and force drug price controls into the Ohio statutes.  The court agreed to allow our challenge to continue that fraudulent petition circulator statements and unlawful signature activities should not be counted.

In a separate but related Motion and Procedural Ruling, the court established an expedited hearing schedule and posed certain legal questions to both sides.  “Our lawyers will be very busy over the next few months responding to this schedule and protecting manufacturing against single-issue activists who try to buy their way into Ohio’s statutes without going through any legislative process,” commented the OMA’s Ryan Augsburger.