North Carolina’s Attorney General has filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on states’ authority to regulate pharmacy benefit managers.
Attorney General Josh Stein said he filed the brief because, “Too many prescription drugs are simply too expensive.”
Pharmacy benefit managers, or “PBMs”, act as go-betweens for insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies. They create and maintain lists, or “formularies”, of prescription medications that are available through a particular insurance plan.
Because getting a drug placed on a formulary can be extremely profitable, drug companies are often willing to offer PBMs significant rebates in exchange for choosing their products.
