The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on June 7 launched a comprehensive probe into pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) companies—those acting as middlemen that manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers, large employers, and other payers.
According to the FTC, it plans to “examine pharmacy benefit managers’ role at the center of the U.S. pharmaceutical system.”
If their operations are addressed properly, drug prices can be reduced significantly, according to Peter Pitts, a former FDA official and the co-founder and President of Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI).
“If the FTC does its job properly, consumers at the point of this dispensation at pharmacies or through the mail, could see their copay drop anywhere between 50-60 percent,” Pitts recently told Epoch TV’s “China Insider” program….