(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is planning to sue UnitedHealth, Cigna and CVS Health – the three largest pharmacy-benefit managers – over their tactics for negotiating prices for drugs including insulin, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The agency plans to file lawsuits targeting the business practices related to rebates brokered with drug manufacturers, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
“Any action that limits the use of these PBM negotiating tools would reward the pharmaceutical industry and return the market to a broken state, leaving American businesses and patients at the mercy of the prices drugmakers set,” a CVS spokesperson said, adding that the company will defend the use of these tools vigorously.
UnitedHealth and Cigna did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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