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FTC releases new findings in drug price inflation investigation

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CHARLOTTE — Americans have longed complained about the high cost of prescription drugs.

A new report from the Federal Trade Commission is uncovering what appears to be a major driver of those costs.

The report found top pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) made more than $7.3 billion by marking up the prices of dozens of generic drugs.

PBMs are the companies that serve as middlemen between drug makers, insurers, and pharmacies.

Those medicines included drugs used to treat heart disease, cancer, and HIV.

This reportedly occurred between 2017 and 2022.

“A pharmacy benefit manager in the United States gets to get a higher revenue if they are negotiating and pay for a higher cost drug, and they get to make less money if the drugs that they are negotiating are cheaper,” Dr. Mariana Socal, with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said.

The country’s three largest PBMs — CVS Health’s Caremark Rx, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx — all disputed the report’s findings.


(WATCH BELOW: Court documents reveal pounds of drugs shipped to Charlotte Douglas Airport)

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