Concentration and vertical integration among the country’s top entities managing prescription drug benefits may be fueling high costs and putting financial pressure on independent pharmacies, the FTC said in a staff report published Tuesday.
The interim report details preliminary findings from the Federal Trade Commission’s study into the six largest pharmacy benefit managers, which the agency launched in June 2022 amid growing pressure from consumers and independent pharmacies that argue PBM practices are anticompetitive and restrict patient access to medicines.
“The FTC’s interim report lays out how dominant pharmacy benefit managers can hike the cost of drugs—including overcharging patients for ...