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Middlemen Play Gatekeeper in Battle to Curb Soaring Drug Costs

  • U.S. insurers, drug plans more agressive at getting discounts
  • Upcoming drugs for migraine, NASH are a ‘watch out:’ insurer
Pharmaceutical Manufacture At Russian Drugmaker OAO Pharmstandard

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

It’s a tough time to be a middleman in the U.S. pharmacy business.

Jeff Bezos is teaming up with two fellow billionaires in what could be a prelude to bigger plans to undercut the dominance of intermediaries in the country’s complex health-care system. Pharma companies are trying to shift the blame onto them for soaring drug prices. And costly new medicines are getting approved at a record pace pace by regulators in Washington.