ALEXANDRIA, Va. (March 30, 2023) – Independent pharmacists and the patients they serve have long had concerns about pharmacy benefit managers, their anticompetitive practices and the role they play in ever-increasing drug costs, the National Community Pharmacists Association said in a statement for the record that emphasizes the need for accurate reporting and transparency into PBM financials.
The complaint alleges multiple violations of the Valentine Act, Ohio’s antitrust law, which prohibits price fixing, controlled sales and other agreements that restrain trade and hurt competition. David Yost, the attorney general decried the practices of PBMs saying that they hurt everyday Ohioans dependent on life-saving drugs like insulin.
In a lawsuit filed this week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost accused pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics of using a little-known, Switzerland-based company to illegally drive up drug prices and ultimately push those higher costs onto patients. This collusion, the lawsuit maintains, has been made possible by PBM market consolidation, which has left
Ohio’s antitrust lawsuit against Express Scripts Inc., Humana Pharmacy Solutions and other companies opens a potentially effective legal front against the embattled pharmacy benefit manager industry.