LOS ANGELES (September 17, 2024) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) joins the many healthcare providers outraged over Express Scripts’ meritless lawsuit designed to deflect attention away from PBM abuses that harm patient care. It is laughable that ESI would demand a retraction of an agency report released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that highlights the role pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) play in the high cost of prescription drugs.
The lawsuit comes as the FTC readies litigation against the three largest PBMs for a host of anticompetitive practices that distort the prescription drug market in favor of drug middleman at the expense of independent pharmacies and the everyday Americans they serve. The timing is anything but a coincidence.
The three largest PBMs – Express Scripts, CVS Caremark, and OptumRx – control approximately 80% of the prescription drug market. With such power, PBMs exploit their privileged position in the prescription drug supply chain, demanding higher rebates from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for access to formularies – the lists PBMs develop for insurers to administer prescription drug plans.
AHF knows all too well how the big three PBM/health insurance mega firms treat independent pharmacies. By design, PBMs force AHF patients out of our custom HIV-care model and into mandatory mail-order delivery, undermining health outcomes. Express Scripts and the other PBM conglomerates provide no value to our patients but want to dictate how people living with HIV access care and therapeutics.
