Appeals Court Dismisses Pharma’s Challenge to Alameda County’s Rx Drug Disposal Law

On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected the pharmaceutical industry's challenge of a 2012 Alameda County ordinance that requires drug manufacturers to cover the cost of disposing consumers' unused medications. The appeals court ruled that the ordinance -- which became the first of its kind in the U.S. -- is applied equally to all manufacturers and imposes no significant burden on interstate commerce. San Francisco Chronicle.

• "Alameda County's Pioneering Drug Disposal Law Upheld in Federal Court" (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/30).