FTC insulin prices overview:
- Who: The Federal Trade Commission filed an in-house administrative complaint against Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx and their respective group purchasing organizations.
- Why: The FTC argues the prescription drug benefit managers and their GPOs engaged in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices that led to inflated insulin prices.
- Where: The case is before the FTC.
The Federal Trade Commission filed an in-house administrative complaint against the three biggest prescription drug benefit managers and their affiliated group purchasing organizations over claims they engaged in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices that inflated insulin prices.
The agency argues Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx, owned by CVS, Cigna and United Health Group, respectively, and their GPOs “abused their economic power” by “rigging pharmaceutical supply chain competition in their favor, forcing patients to pay more for life-saving medication.”
“Caremark, ESI and Optum—as medication gatekeepers—have extracted millions of dollars off the backs of patients who need life-saving medications,” Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC’s bureau of competition, says in a statement.
The FTC argues Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum allegedly rigged the system by creating a “perverse drug rebate system” that “prioritizes high rebates from drug manufacturers,” leading to insulin prices that are artificially inflated, according to the statement.
FTC says cost of high insulin prices shifted to ‘vulnerable patients’
In addition to allegedly inflating insulin prices, the FTC argues the alleged anticompetitive practices impaired patients’ access to lower list price products and shifted the cost of high insulin prices to “vulnerable patients.”
The FTC claims that, even if a lower list price for insulin became available, Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum “systemically excluded them in favor of high list price, highly rebated insulin products,” according to the statement.
“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 (prescription drug benefit managers) and their greed,” Rao says in the statement.
Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum administer around 80% of all prescriptions in the United States, according to the FTC insulin complaint.
In other insulin news, in April, a New Jersey federal judge declined to certify a dozen classes of insulin buyers who claimed Eli Lilly conspired with Novo Nordisk and Sanofi Aventis to inflate the price of insulin for uninsured and underinsured patients.
Do you believe Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum rigged the insulin market? Let us know in the comments.
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
