US Health Resources and Services Administration

In a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, a federal judge decided the US Health Resources and Services Administration cannot enforce a rule that would allow so-called safety-net hospitals and clinics to obtain orphan drugs at a discount. Orphan drugs are used to treat rare diseases.

The decision caps more than two years of feuding between drug makers and the agency over a federal program known as 340B. This requires drug makers to offer discounts of up to 50 percent on all outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that serve indigent populations. There are roughly 2,000 such institutions, although the number was recently expanded thanks to the Affordable Care Act.