U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate anti-competitive practices by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
In a Sept. 30 letter to the FTC, Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee Chair, and Finance Committee member Brown said PBMs may be using anti-competitive practices to create barriers to competition and take in larger revenues.
“The concern with these ‘co-manufacturing’ agreements is that they are a veiled attempt by PBMs to control additional parts of the supply chain which has resulted in additional harm to consumers in the form of fewer drug choices and higher drug costs,” the senators wrote. “We urge the FTC to examine new PBM tactics that appear to create further barriers to competition and harm the ability of consumers to access lower cost prescription drugs. It is important we keep a watchful eye on the evolving tactics of PBM megafirms as they proceed with owning more and more of the prescription drug supply chain.”
The letter comes just months after the FTC released an interim report on how the concentrated market structure PBMs operate in allows them to profit at the expense of American patients and independent pharmacists. In September, the FTC filed a lawsuit contending that actions by PBMs lead to increased pharmaceutical costs for Americans because of unfair competition methods.
Last year, the Finance Committee introduced legislation, the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act, that would have addressed some of the PBM practices. That bill aimed to bring more transparency, accountability and competition to PBMs within the pharmaceutical supply chain.