A Colorado board voted Friday to allow the Attorney General’s Office to fight an injunction against a price cap on a drug that treats arthritis.

A U.S. district court judge had granted the company Amgen a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking Colorado from imposing a price cap on Enbrel, an injectable commonly used to treat arthritis.

Enbrel was the first, and so far only, drug for which the Prescription Drug Affordability Board has implemented a price cap since the body was established through legislation in 2021.

Last fall, Colorado placed a $31,000 annual cap on Enbrel, the first state in the country to do so. The drug’s price has increased by over 1,500% since it was introduced in 1998, according to the Colorado Division of Insurance. The price cap was set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Shortly after the drug board voted to impose a cap on Enbrel, Amgen filed a lawsuit, arguing the cap conflicts with federal patent authority and violates the Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“In flouting the Constitution and federal law, the Board’s actions jeopardize access to Enbrel and other innovative drugs, endangering the lives and well-being of countless patients with serious medical conditions,” the company wrote in its complaint.

Judge Daniel Domenico sided with Amgen, granting a preliminary injunction on the cap. Domenico acknowledged that medication has become unaffordable for many Americans, but that, in his view, “those policy issues are not relevant to the legal discussion here.”

“As a matter of basic economic logic, Amgen is likely to be significantly harmed by a cap on the price of its product, even if the cap applies unevenly and down the chain,” Domenico wrote in his opinion. “That is sufficient to satisfy its burden.”

On July 24, Prescription Drug Affordability Board members voted to permit the attorney general to appeal the injunction.

“Physicians commend the Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Board for appealing the injunction keeping them from lowering the cost of Enbrel for patients,” Dr. Kristen Nordenholz, an emergency medicine doctor in Aurora, said in a news release. “We’ve been supporting the PDAB from the beginning because the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs have done incalculable damage to our patients’ health. We must keep fighting to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable and ensure our patients can access the drugs they need to live and thrive.”