North Carolina’s Attorney General and 39 others are calling on Congress to help lower drug costs for Americans by reforming how pharmacy benefit managers operate.
Attorney General Josh Stein said the third-party companies are putting profits over patients, and that’s unacceptable.
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, act as go-betweens for insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies. They create and maintain lists of prescription medications that are available through a particular insurance plan.
Because getting a drug placed on a formulary can be extremely profitable, Stein said drug companies are often willing to offer significant rebates in exchange for choosing their products.
In theory, those rebates should ultimately be passed along to consumers as lower costs for medications but the cost of prescription medications has continued to increase nationwide.
The attorneys general are asking Congress to pass legislation that will force PBMs to operate with more transparency and stop extracting exorbitant profits.
Read the letter -- https://ncdoj.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/PBM-Letter-_NAAG-Letterhead-Final.pdf
