US sues 3 health firms for inflating insulin prices, boosting profits at expense of patients

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Friday it sued three prescription drug benefit managing companies, alleging they inflated insulin drug prices and boosted profits at the expense of vulnerable patients.

The regulator claimed that the companies engaged in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices that have artificially inflated the list price of insulin drugs, impaired patients’ access to lower list price products, and shifted the cost of high insulin list prices to vulnerable patients.

The companies are CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s ESI, and United Health Group’s Optum, and their respective group purchasing organizations -- Zinc Health Services, Ascent Health Services, and Emisar Pharma Services.

The FTC said they have abused their economic power by rigging pharmaceutical supply chain competition in their favor, forcing patients to pay more for life-saving medication.

It added that the companies created "a perverse drug rebate system" that prioritizes high rebates from drug manufacturers.

"The complaint charges that even when lower list price insulins became available that could have been more affordable for vulnerable patients, the prescription drug benefit managers systemically excluded them in favor of high list price, highly rebated insulin products," it said in a statement.

The three companies, known as the Big Three, together administer about 80% of all prescriptions in the US, it noted.