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NCPA backs bill to reform PBM market

NCPA backs bill to reform PBM market

B. Douglas HoeyALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association supports legislation reintroduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that would require the Federal Trade Commission to study the role and recent merger activity of pharmacy benefit managers, including possible anticompetitive behavior. S. 1388, the Prescription Pricing for People Act, will bring more transparency into health care by addressing high drug costs and patient challenges, says B. Douglas Hoey, CEO of the NCPA. “Momentum is growing to reform and rethink antitrust enforcement in the United States,” he said. “Independent pharmacists have been pressing for this for many years. There’s a severe lack of competition in the PBM market, and it is driving up the cost of prescription drugs. Unfortunately, patients, employers and small business partners suffer as this consolidation has so far gone largely unchecked by regulators and been permitted to grow.” S. 1388 is co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. 

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