The Justice Department will seek emergency intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, it said Thursday.
That outcome would bring uncertainty to a regulatory framework that drugmakers rely on during the expensive and lengthy process of developing medications, they told CNBC. He said that kind of legal fight could have an effect similar to that of a drug's patent expiring, which reduces the medication's time on the market and typicallyA potential legal challenge is a "risk that effectively reduces the economic incentives of bringing drugs to the market," Lakdawalla said. He said it could cause companies and investors to funnel less money into drug research and development.
It takes at least 10 years on average for a new drug to reach the marketplace after its initial discovery, according to, the primary lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry. Clinical trials alone take six to seven years on average. Hastings was among the biopharma executives who first issued the open letter. He said the industry is "going to have trouble" if Kacsmaryk's ruling is ultimately upheld.