FTC Sues CVS Health, Cigna And United Health Group For Inflating Insulin Prices

(RTTNews) - The Federal Trade Commission filed an action against the three largest prescription drug benefit managers or PBMs— CVS Health's Caremark Rx, Cigna's Express Scripts, and United Health Group's OptumRx—along with their affiliated group purchasing organizations (GPOs). The FTC alleges that these companies engaged in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices that have artificially inflated the list prices of insulin drugs, restricted patient access to lower-priced options, and shifted the burden of high insulin costs onto vulnerable patients.

The FTC's administrative complaint alleges that Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum, and their respective GPOs—Zinc Health Services, Ascent Health Services, and Emisar Pharma Services—have abused their economic power by rigging pharmaceutical supply chain competition in their favor, forcing patients to pay more for life-saving medication.

According to the complaint, the prescription drug benefit managers, known as the Big Three, together administer about 80% of all prescriptions in the United States.

The FTC alleges that the three prescription drug benefit managers created a perverse drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drug manufacturers, leading to artificially inflated insulin list prices.

The complaint charges that even when lower list price insulins became available that could have been more affordable for vulnerable patients, the PBMs systemically excluded them in favor of high list price, highly rebated insulin products. These strategies have allowed the PBMs and GPOs to line their pockets while certain patients are forced to pay higher out-of-pocket costs for insulin medication, the FTC's complaint alleges.