Official court ruling or settlement announcement

FTC Sues CVS, Cigna, UnitedHealth Over Inflated Insulin Prices, Rebate Programs

Sep 20, 2024, 04:39 PM

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the United States—CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx. The FTC accuses these PBMs of engaging in illegal rebate programs that have artificially inflated the price of insulin, causing patients to pay significantly more for the life-saving medication. The lawsuit claims that these practices have driven up insulin costs by over 1,200 percent over the past two decades. The FTC alleges that the PBMs, which administer 80% of medication in the US, steered diabetic patients towards higher-priced insulin products to reap millions of dollars in rebates from pharmaceutical companies. While the case does not name insulin drugmakers like Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, the FTC reserves the right to sue them later.