FTC accuses CVS, Cigna, UnitedHealth of abusing middleman role, shares down

Investing.com -- Shares of CVS Health Corp (NYSE: CVS), Cigna (NYSE: CI) Group, and UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE: UNH) were down around 1% after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused their pharmacy benefit manager units of imposing significant price markups on specialty generic drugs, according to a new interim staff report.

FTC said the "Big 3 PBMs" — CVS’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx — imposed markups of hundreds to thousands of percent on critical drugs, including those for cancer and HIV, between 2017 and 2022.

The PBMs generated more than $7.3 billion in excess revenue, with affiliated pharmacies receiving higher reimbursements than unaffiliated counterparts.

“The FTC staff’s second interim report finds that the three major pharmacy benefit managers hiked costs for a wide range of lifesaving drugs, including medications to treat heart disease and cancer,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan.

FTC staff remain committed to providing timely updates as the Commission continues to receive and review additional information as part of the ongoing study, agency said in the statement.

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