July report<\/a>\u00a0that claimed that the PBM industry is hiking drug prices.<\/p>\nPBMs sit at the center of the drug supply chain in the U.S. They negotiate rebates with drug manufacturers on behalf of insurers, large employers and federal health plans. They also create lists of medications, or formularies, that are covered by insurance and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions. The FTC has been investigating PBMs since 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The agency’s suit argues that the three PBMs have created a “perverse” drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drugmakers, which leads to “artificially inflated insulin list prices.” It also alleges that PBMs favor those high-list-price insulins even when more affordable insulins with lower list prices become available.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The FTC is filing its complaint through its so-called administrative process, which initiates a proceeding before an administrative judge who would hear the case.<\/p>\n
“Millions of Americans with diabetes need insulin to survive, yet for many of these vulnerable patients, their insulin drug costs have skyrocketed over the past decade thanks in part to powerful PBMs and their greed,” Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The FTC’s administrative action seeks to put an end to the Big Three PBMs’ exploitative conduct and marks an important step in fixing a broken system\u2014a fix that could ripple beyond the insulin market and restore healthy competition to drive down drug prices for consumers,” Rao continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roughly 8 million Americans with diabetes rely on insulin to survive, and many have been forced to ration the treatment due to high prices, according to the FTC.<\/p>\n
The White House has no comment on the FTC’s suit, but has “made clear that no one should pay higher prices because of corporate greed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden<\/a>‘s signature Inflation Reduction Act has capped insulin prices for Medicare beneficiaries at $35 per month. That policy currently does not extend to patients with private insurance.<\/p>\nThe Biden administration and Congress have ramped up pressure on PBMs, seeking to increase transparency into their operations as many Americans struggle to afford prescription drugs. On average, Americans pay two to three times more than patients in other developed nations for prescription drugs, according to a\u00a0fact sheet<\/a>\u00a0from the White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n