PBM Played Deadly Part in Addiction Epidemic
FRANKFORT, KY – Attorney General Russell Coleman has announced the filing of a lawsuit against Express Scripts, Inc. and its affiliated organizations for its role in worsening the deadly opioid crisis in Kentucky. Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), is at the center of the opioid dispensing chain: contracting with the manufacturers of opioids, the pharmacies that dispense them and the third-party payors who pay for them.
Pharmacy benefit managers are essentially middle men in the pharmaceutical industry. Although dozens of PBMs exist nationwide, a select few dominate the market and wield outsized influence in the availability, dispensing and pricing of prescription drugs. Express Scripts’ network alone includes 64,000 pharmacies across the country.
The Attorney General’s complaint, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court, alleges that Express Scripts and its related entities:
- Colluded with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers in deceptive marketing to increase sales of the highly-addictive drugs;
- Took steps to restrict tools that would have limited opioid prescribing and dispensing;
- Failed to report or address the suspicious volume of opioids flowing into Kentucky and the country; and
- Dispensed opioids through mail order pharmacies without effective controls in violation of Kentucky and federal law.
“The opioid-fueled drug crisis is the greatest tragedy of our lifetime. It has stolen loved ones, drained scarce public resources and inflicted generational harm on Kentucky communities large and small,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Express Scripts and the other pharmacy benefit managers amassed an unprecedented level of power, using it to push opioid pills and conceal unlawful activity. They must be held to account for profiting off Kentucky families’ pain.”
No state has been harder hit by the drug crisis than Kentucky. Last year alone, 1,984 Kentuckians died of a drug overdose, and the fentanyl pouring over the wide-open southern border continues to flow into communities and threaten lives.
The Office of the Attorney General has led the comprehensive effort to combat addiction. Earlier this month, Attorney General Coleman received unanimous approval from the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission for a two-year, $3.6 million statewide prevention initiative to educate the Commonwealth’s young people about the dangers of drugs. Focusing on positive youth development messages, the “Better Without It” campaign will encourage Kentuckians to avoid drug use.
Other Kentucky leaders have also taken serious steps to rein in PBMs’ harmful business practices.
Earlier this year, U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY-01) issued a report outlining how Express Scripts and other PBMs deployed anticompetitive tactics to raise prescription drug prices, undermine community pharmacies and harm patients across the United States.
Kentucky’s General Assembly passed a law earlier this year requiring PBMs to pay minimum reimbursement rates to pharmacies and prohibiting PBM requirements or incentives to influence plan participants to use mail order pharmacies.
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