Political Quotes

“Mr. President, yesterday the FTC, in a 4-to-1 decision, took action in a report, an interim staff report, that show that we should all be very concerned about the activities of PBM middlemen. These are the basic people who are supposedly getting discounts for us on drug prices but then actually pocket those discounts. The final report, which we should be receiving--this interim report we should be receiving today basically says that market concentration and vertical integration are just giving these PBMs too much market power. The point is, are we going to do anything to stop that market power and to help the public who need better transparency on price? It also says that PBMs are engaging in self-preferencing, meaning that they are steering those rebates back to themselves, and it is affecting pharmacies. It is affecting pharmacies in my State where now in downtown Seattle, you don't have any 24-hour pharmacies anymore, and pharmacy deserts are starting to happen. The report also shows that PBMs may be using their market shares to force independent pharmacies into unfair contracts--that is what you get when you get a concentration of a market, and then you can basically push other people out of the market--and that PBMs and manufacturers are entering into rebate agreements that may impair or block access to lower cost drugs. I urge my colleagues to get this report, to review it. I urge our colleagues here to take action on these PBM middlemen. This is a bipartisan effort.…”