Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) pushed up the cost of some prescription drugs by up to 1,000 percent, according to a recent report from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The report focused on PBMs’ control over specialty generic drugs. The PBMs “marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent, and many others by hundreds of percent,” said a Jan. 14 statement from the agency.
This includes drugs used in the treatment of HIV, cancer, and other serious illnesses.
The FTC analyzed the activities of the “Big 3 PBMs”—CVS Caremark, Cigna Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx. These three entities control 80 percent of the PBM market….