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Max Nisen

CVS’s Drug-Price Plan Lets Pharma Off Too Easy

A new program aimed at keeping costs down allows too many expensive treatments to slip through.

More muscle needed. — More muscle needed.
Photographer: Victoria Arocho/Bloomberg

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August 17, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

The pharmacy benefit management business is under attack. And these middlemen of the arcane U.S. drug-pricing system are preparing their defenses.

PBM giant CVS Health Corp. released a report earlier this week pushing back on accusations that the company and its peers reap excessive profits as they negotiate drug prices on behalf of clients such as insurers. It also outlined its own novel proposals for pushing prices down.