In the first of the FTC’s monthly open meetings, NCPA General Counsel Matthew Seiler spoke to the commission Thursday about PBMs and their anticompetitive practices harming patients and neighborhood pharmacies. Each speaker was allowed one minute to make remarks. Seiler said, in part: “The PBMs are systematically driving small local pharmacies out of business through anticompetitive practices such as below-cost reimbursements and patient steering to PBM-preferred networks. This has led to pharmacy deserts in urban and rural areas for our most vulnerable populations. NCPA urges this body to review the effects of consolidation and vertical integration for anticompetitive conduct by PBMs and the resulting impact on independent pharmacies and patients that has largely evaded scrutiny for years.”
NCPA
