British drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Friday it has filed a legal challenge to critical aspects of a program that gives the Medicare health insurance plan the power to negotiate lower drug prices.

The drug price negotiation program is part of President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The program faces several other court challenges, including from leading industry groups and other drug companies.

‍AstraZeneca said it was filing a legal challenge in a bid to "protect timely access to medicines for orphan indications" in the United States.

(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Shilpi Majumdar)