AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim and PhRMA are asking to intervene in the hospital industry’s lawsuit seeking to block HRSA’s revised 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program, according to court filings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
AbbVie and its Pharmacyclics unit, Bristol Myers Squibb and Boehringer Ingelheim filed a motion to intervene Oct. 14, and PhRMA filed its own motion Oct. 15 in American Hospital Association v. Kennedy. The drugmakers said they want to defend the rebate plans HRSA approved for their drugs, including AbbVie’s Imbruvica, Linzess and Vraylar, Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis and Pomalyst and Boehringer’s Jardiance, Ofev and Tradjenta. They argued that the government’s representation of their interests “may be inadequate,” the standard for intervening, because, unlike HRSA, they face duplicate discount losses and civil penalties.
The companies put numbers on those losses in declarations. Bristol Myers Squibb said it has already lost at least $40 million in duplicate discounts, AbbVie said it expects to lose $35.8 million and Boehringer said its losses average $3 million a week, increasing in 2027. PhRMA said its members could pay $5.2 billion in duplicate 340B and Medicare negotiated-price discounts in 2027 alone, citing a Berkeley Research Group estimate, and that one manufacturer paid out millions of dollars a week in duplicate discounts in early 2026.
Both filings note the court denied PhRMA’s and the manufacturers’ bids to intervene in the first round of litigation in December 2025 and say the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated that order Sept. 25. They ask the court to consider the question again.
The AHA, the Maine Hospital Association and four hospitals — Bangor, Maine-based Eastern Maine Medical Center, Gloversville, N.Y.-based Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home, Grafton, N.D.-based Unity Medical Center and Fordyce, Ark.-based Dallas County Medical Center — sued Oct. 9 to block the pilot before its Jan. 1 start, arguing HHS and HRSA ignored their feedback, including that the program could cost hospitals more than $1 billion a year.
The same court blocked the first version of the pilot in December 2025, and the 1st Circuit upheld the injunction before HHS agreed to drop it. The Maine court vacated the program Feb. 10 and sent it back to HRSA. HRSA revised the pilot in July and approved 10 drugmakers Oct. 1. A bipartisan House bill would delay the pilot for two years.
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