Industry Rebuts County's Opposition To High Court Drug Take-Back Review

摘要

Pharmaceutical industry petitioners seeking Supreme Court review of a landmark appellate court decision that upheld a California county's drug take-back ordinance are rebutting the county's criticism of the industry petition, arguing the county is parroting the erroneous reasoning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The county's opposition to the petition "merely mimics the Ninth Circuit's erroneous reasons for authorizing ... naked rent-seeking against interstate commerce," the petitioners say in a reply brief submitted to the Supreme Court late last month. Petitioners are asking the high court to review a 2014 decision by the 9th Circuit in Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, el al. v. County of Alameda, CA. See page 2 for details. (Doc. ID: 181262) At issue is the 9th Circuit's Sept. 30 unanimous ruling upholding an ordinance Alameda County passed in 2012 that requires pharmaceutical companies whose products are sold in the county to establish, run and finance a drug take-back program for unwanted medications. Many local governments and citizen groups are concerned that a lack of such programs leads consumers to flush medications into wastewater systems, where they are eventually discharged and cause adverse developmental effects in fish and possibly humans.