It has been more than a month since the 7 major drug manufacturers’ CEOs testified before the congress on February 26.
One of the “problems” that pharma CEOs complained about was pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) or the middleman problem.
In a healthcare system involving drugmakers, PBMs, pharmacies, insurers, patients, etc., one of the premises behind CVS’s $70 billion acquisition of Aetna and Cigna’s $54 billion acquisition of Express Scripts might actually make them vulnerable in front of regulators: their bargain power.
CVS Health, Cigna, McKesson, Rite Aid, Walgreens… companies with relatively large exposure between pharmaceutical companies and patients/payers are having a very hard time.
What’s ahead – on March 13, the same committee (Senate Finance Committee) said it has called 5 major PBMs to testify on April 3 (tomorrow…)
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- Cigna
- CVS
- Humana
- OptumRx
- Prime Therapeutics
They must have been prepared.
Stay stunned.