The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers on Friday, accusing them of steering diabetes patients toward higher-priced insulin to reap millions of dollars in rebates from pharmaceutical companies.
The case accuses UnitedHealth Group Inc's Optum unit, CVS Health Corp's CVS Caremark and Cigna Corp's Express Scripts of unfairly excluding lower-cost insulin products from lists of drugs covered by insurers.
Driving down drug prices has been a key goal for the Joe Biden administration, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has emphasized her work for patients, and in particular on lowering insulin prices, on the campaign trail.
The conduct hurt patients, such as those with coinsurance and deductibles, who were not eligible for the rebated price, the FTC said. The three companies jointly administer 80% of all prescriptions in the U.S., according to the case, which was filed in the FTC's in-house court.
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