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WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and a leading advocate on the Finance Committee for
lowering prescription drug costs and holding pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
accountable, was joined by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and five of their colleagues in urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to complete its PBM investigation in a timely manner. The renewed push comes after the FTC failed to commit to a timeline for its investigation during a recent
oversight hearing on antitrust enforcement. The commission
announced the probe in June following requests from Grassley.
In a
bipartisan letter to FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, Grassley and Cantwell were joined by Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in arguing that Americans cannot afford a delay, since PBMs’ potential anticompetitive behavior could be increasing the cost of medicine for consumers.
“As you know, PBMs operate with little to no transparency, making it very difficult if not impossible to understand the flow of money in the prescription drug marketplace and how PBMs determine the prices for prescription drugs. Recent consolidations between PBMs, insurance providers, and other health care entities have resulted in vertical integration whereby a small number of companies now manage the vast majority of prescription drug benefits,” the senators wrote.
The senators discuss their support for the
Prescription Pricing for the People Act – a bipartisan measure led by Grassley and Cantwell – that would require the FTC to investigate PBMs for potential market manipulation tactics and other anti-competitive practices and provide a report to Congress within one year. The bill was
unanimously approved by the Judiciary Committee last year.
“There is widespread bipartisan support for examining PBMs and looking into whether they are causing Americans to pay higher prices for prescription drugs. This is why we support the FTC’s decision to conduct a PBM study. We hear stories about rising drug costs all the time. A timely study into the business practices of these intermediaries would provide transparency, insight about possible competitive harms, and inform potential legislative action. With the FTC’s action on June 7, 2022, there is widespread support for the study and interest to review its findings in a timely manner. To ensure the 6(b) study’s usefulness, we urge the FTC to issue the report within one year of its issuance,” the senators concluded.
Full text of the letter is available
HERE.The FTC announced its investigation in June, after Grassley had
pressed the commission to review the role of PBMs in prescription drug prices, specifically insulin, in May. Grassley also
requested FTC assessments in August 2018. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley and then-Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called
five PBM executives to testify before the committee in 2019.
Grassley also recently introduced the
Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act alongside Cantwell, which would direct the FTC to increase drug-pricing transparency and hold PBMs accountable for unfair and deceptive practices. This measure
passed the Commerce Committee in June. The senator has also spent years pushing for passage of his Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, a bipartisan bill he authored with Wyden and
shepherded through the Finance Committee in 2019. That legislation would cap year-over-year price increases, reform Medicare Part D and save both seniors and taxpayers billions of dollars.
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Grassley Urges FTC to Complete Its Investigation into Pharmacy Benefit Managers to Shine Light on Drug Pricing Practices - Senator Chuck Grassley
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