US law­mak­ers now want to hear from the mid­dle­men PBMs to un­pack their role in drug pric­ing

The US Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee is up­ping the ante on the is­sue of drug pric­ing with yet an­oth­er hear­ing — this time with phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers, the mid­dle­men that ne­go­ti­ate re­bates with drug­mak­ers in ex­change for for­mu­la­ry cov­er­age and the pur­port­ed vil­lains be­hind sky­rock­et­ing list prices (ac­cord­ing to big Phar­ma) in a hear­ing last month.

On Tues­day, Sen­a­tors Chuck Grass­ley and Ron Wyden in­vit­ed ex­ec­u­tives from five PBMs — Cigna, CVS, Hu­mana, Unit­ed­Health’s Op­tum­Rx and Prime Ther­a­peu­tics — to tes­ti­fy on April 3 in the third drug pric­ing hear­ing this year.

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