US FTC finds major pharmacy fee managers inflated drug prices for $7.3 billion profit Reuters
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Amina Niasse
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers significantly increased the prices of certain drugs, including for heart disease, cancer and HIV, at their affiliated pharmacies, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.
From 2017 to 2022, the companies — Optum UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: ), CVS Caremark CVS Health (NYSE: ) and Express Scripts Cigna (NYSE: ) — raised prices at their affiliated pharmacies by hundreds or thousands of percent, generated $7.3 billion in revenue that exceeds the cost of acquiring the drugs, the FTC said in its second report on the industry.
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, act as intermediaries between pharmaceutical companies and consumers. They negotiate volume discounts and rebates with drug manufacturers on behalf of employers and health plans, create lists of drugs that are covered by insurance, and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions.
The FTC sued three PBMs in September, accusing them of steering diabetes patients toward more expensive insulin products in order to receive millions of dollars in rebates from drugmakers. The companies say the lawsuit is baseless and defend their practices.
