WASHINGTON
– Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today issued the following statement after the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
launched an inquiry into
the impacts of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) on the affordability of
medicine. Grassley specifically pushed the FTC to open this investigation.
“I
commend the FTC for taking this step toward a more transparent and
understandable prescription drug market. PBMs clearly play an enormous role in
what Americans pay for their medicine, and much of that role is opaque and
inscrutable. That’s why I asked for this study. I know from my own
investigations that PBMs exercise a significant influence over the prices
people pay for insulin at the pharmacy counter, and some business practices
create perverse incentives for increases in that price.
“I
will be closely watching and reading as the FTC makes progress in this
investigation, and am glad the commission heard my request and the clear public
demand for transparency.”
Grassley, a senior member and former chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, as recently as last month
pressed the FTC to review the role of PBMs in the prescription
drug prices, specifically insulin. Grassley earlier
requested FTC assessments in August 2018, and he’s introduced
legislation
to require such a study in multiple successive Congresses. As chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee, Grassley and then-Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
called five
PBM executives to testify before the committee in 2019.
Grassley
also recently introduced the
Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act alongside Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), which
would empower the FTC to increase drug-pricing transparency and hold PBMs
accountable for unfair and deceptive practices. The senator has also spent
years pushing for passage of the
Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, bipartisan
legislation he authored with Wyden and
shepherded through the Finance
Committee in 2019. That legislation would cap year-over-year price increases, reform
Medicare Part D and save both seniors and taxpayers billions of dollars.
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