12:25 PM EDT, 09/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Federal Trade Commission on Friday said it has filed suit against the three biggest prescription drug benefit managers, or PBMs, for allegedly inflating the list prices of insulin drugs artificially.

The complaint alleges that CVS Health's ( CVS ) Caremark, Cigna's ( CI ) Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group's ( UNH ) OptumRx and their respective group purchasing organizations have rigged pharmaceutical supply chain competition in their favor, which has forced patients to pay more for their medications. The three PBMs administer about 80% of all prescriptions in the US, according to the FTC complaint.

Specifically, the FTC alleges that the three PBMs created a "perverse" rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drugmakers that lead to artificially high insulin list prices. Even when lower list price insulins became available, the PBMs excluded them in favor of insulin products with higher list prices and higher rebates, according to the complaint.

CVS, Cigna ( CI ) and UnitedHealth ( UNH ) did not immediately reply to requests for comment from MT Newswires.

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