The nation’s top pharmacy benefit manager lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, is launching a new seven-figure advertising campaign Monday focused on affordability.
PCMA exclusively told Bloomberg Government this will be the largest amount of money the group has ever spent on an advertising campaign, which is serving as a kickoff point for a messaging rebrand.
The beleaguered industry was dealt a blow by Congress’s PBM overhaul in February which required PBMs to increase transparency on drug prices and other data. Measures also mandated that PBMs delink the price of a drug to compensation in Medicare Part D and fully pass through 100% of drug rebates to employer health plans.
“We are certainly responding to this political moment in time by emphasizing savings, by emphasizing affordability,” David Marin, freshly minted president and CEO of the trade group, said in an interview.
“We need that cost savings message to be heard and understood,” Marin added. “Drug prices are still too high for too many; they’d be a ton higher without PBMs.”
The new advertising campaign is slated to run through the end of the year. The first batch of TV ads run just 30 seconds long and end with a simple tagline: “PBMs: Lowering Drug Prices. Protecting Patients.” The ads will start airing on streaming TV and online in the Washington, DC, area on Monday.
PBMs are middlemen that manage prescription drug plans for insurers and negotiate rebates and discounts with drug manufacturers. They are often owned by and integrated into large insurance companies. These drug intermediaries have been the subject of congressional ire for several years for what critics say is their contribution to high drug costs. President Donald Trump has also railed against PBMs during his second administration.
Congressional PBM Action
PCMA acknowledged that the industry was targeted by Congress because it didn’t do a good enough job articulating the role it plays in the drug supply chain. A few weeks after Marin took over as CEO, he testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee and said PBMs had “failed” to show their value.
“For too long, our industry has let others with an interest that is not consistent with ours define us,” Marin said in the interview of how PBMs failed in the past.
Marin said the PBM changes that were signed into law were “a long time coming” and acknowledged “some of these reforms were necessary,” since it “allows air to be let out of the political balloon.”
But PCMA maintains that even if the overhaul may have been politically necessary to get the target off their backs, changes to the law won’t result in savings because they say the real drivers of cost are pharmaceutical companies, which are still raising prices.
“No amount of message discipline can change the facts,” Alex Schriver, senior vice president of public affairs at top pharmaceutical lobbying group PhRMA, said in a statement. “Three PBMs control 80% of the market, routinely deny patients the medicines they’re prescribed and ultimately decide what patients pay at the pharmacy counter.”
Congress could return to further PBM alterations at the end of the year. Senate Democrats have also included PBM reform in their legislative agenda for next year if they regain power.
Marin indicated he hopes PBMs’ time in the spotlight has passed, but several champions of PBM-focused legislation, such as Rep.
New Message, New Heavy-Hitters
Marin, a former pharmaceutical executive at Viatris, and Brendan Buck, a longtime GOP Hill staffer, including for House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, both joined PCMA in January.
“Our messages are going to be very simple,” said Buck, the trade group’s chief communications officer. “We lower drug prices, we protect patients, we have an important role in patient safety.” The group is also planning to roll out its own policy agenda soon, Buck said.
Marin and Buck both said they are taking some pages out of Big Pharma’s playbook.
“It’s both a matter of message and persistence, right?” Marin said. “We were too reactive, too passive, and often too late to the game.”
But following PhRMA’s model isn’t a sure bet. Pharmaceutical companies are also facing scrutiny from Congress and the Trump administration, and had their own big loss in 2022 when Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act which implemented Medicare drug price negotiations.
PCMA staff are going to Hill offices and reminding members of Congress they just voted for a big PBM overhaul in February.
Marin said the group will emphasize that other players in the healthcare system are driving up costs, too.
“The value of the PBM industry is undeniable,” Marin said. “But it’s not adequately known.”