US FTC to sue drug middlemen over insulin prices, source says
Adds Novo declining comment, background on insulin
By Jody Godoy and Mariam Sunny
July 10 (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is planning to sue UnitedHealth UNH.N, Cigna CI.N and CVS Health CVS.N over their tactics as middlemen in negotiating prices for drugs including insulin, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The three companies own the largest pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, which are being investigated for the rebates, or volume-based discounts, they negotiate with drug manufacturers, and how these influence drug access and pricing.
CVS said the company intends to defend itself vigorously. UnitedHealth declined to comment; Cigna was not immediately available for comment.
"Any action that limits the use of these PBM negotiating tools would reward the pharmaceutical industry and return the market to a broken state, leaving American businesses and patients at the mercy of the prices drugmakers set," a CVS spokesperson said.
The FTC is also looking at drugmakers as part of the insulin probe, the source said. The three largest insulin makers include Sanofi SASY.PA, Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO and Eli Lilly LLY.N.
Sanofi said its pricing practices have always complied with the law and that the company is committed to helping patients access the medicine they need at the lowest possible price.
Novo declined to comment and Lilly did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
U.S. President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act capped insulin prices for government-backed Medicare insurance recipients at $35 per month but that cap does not apply to patientswith private insurance or without insurance.
Americans without health insurance pay an average of $98 for Eli Lilly’s generic insulin despite the company’s May 1 pledge to cut its list price to $25 per vial, according to a survey of more than 300 U.S. pharmacies by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office released a year ago.
As of 2023, around 8.4 million people in the United States with diabetes used insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Insulin is vital for patients with type 1 diabetes to control their blood sugar and for some patients with the more common type 2 diabetes.
On Tuesday, the FTC issued an interim report, saying the three biggest middlemen - managing 79% of U.S. prescription drug claims - have used years of dealmaking to gain outsized influence on drug prices. The report said the companies enriched themselves at the expense of smaller pharmacies and consumers.
UnitedHealth's Optum unit, CVS Health's CVS Caremark and Cigna's Express Scripts all disputed the report's findings.
Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel and David Gregorio
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
