Arkansas suspends enforcement of law preventing limits on which pharmacies can sell medications

The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy decided Tuesday to not enforce a 2025 law that would remove drugmakers’ power to limit which pharmacies can purchase their drugs after a federal judge called the measure unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky in May granted Novartis Pharmaceuticals’ request to block the state from enforcing Act 630 of 2025 against the New Jersey-based company. Rudofsky is presiding over similar suits filed by Bristol Myers Squibb and Accredo Health Group. The plaintiffs didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Act 630 is the second 2025 law related to prescription drug access that was blocked in federal court after Act 624, which would have banned pharmacy benefit managers from holding drugstore permits. Accredo Health Group is among the plaintiffs that sued over Act 624.

Both laws were found to violate the U.S. Constitution’s dormant commerce clause, which prohibits states from making laws that discriminate against interstate commerce.

The pharmacy board voted Tuesday to support settlements in the lawsuits against Act 630 and to not process any applications from pharmacies seeking limits on their distribution networks in Arkansas.

Republican Rep. Brandon Achor of Maumelle, a practicing pharmacist and Act 630’s sponsor, said the injunction was frustrating but provides guidance for how to amend the law in a future legislative session. Achor is running for a state Senate seat in November.

He said he found it disappointing that drug companies did not take the opportunity Act 630 gave them to “show their work and show cause for why their current network was necessary for patient care.”

“Rather than complying and taking on the opportunity to show why their process is for the good of the patient, they sued and said, ‘Stop asking us questions,’” said Achor, who also co-sponsored Act 624.

In addition to more legislative action, the state could come up with “a market-based solution, if the manufacturers would come to the table and listen and be open-minded,” Arkansas Pharmacists Association CEO John Vinson said.

“Until they do, I think there’s going to be a continued fight over it as long as patient lives and access are still at stake,” Vinson said.

He noted that a northeast Arkansas pharmacy has been unable to stock a specific life-saving cancer medication manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb. Cancer patients’ mortality increases by 10% for every four weeks without treatment, Vinson said.

Achor and his wife, also a pharmacist, have both been through cancer treatment.

“I’ve seen that from the patient’s perspective, I’ve seen it from the provider’s perspective, and from my perspective as a legislator, I’m not willing to accept the current norm as something that is sustainable for Arkansas,” he said.

Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb are among 13 drug companies the state sued last week. Attorney General Tim Griffin alleged that the companies violated Arkansas’ 2021 law requiring drugmakers that participate in Medicaid to sell discounted drugs to contract pharmacies.

The 2021 law survived a federal court challenge when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that federal law does not preempt Arkansas law.

Both the 2021 law and Act 624 of 2025 were the first laws of their kind nationwide. Arkansas also sought to improve patient access to medication with another 2025 law allowing nonprofit hospitals to hold pharmacy permits.

The state appealed the Act 624 injunction, but an appeal in the Act 630 litigation “is very unlikely,” representatives from Griffin’s office told the pharmacy board Tuesday.