(Reuters) – Shares of well being insurers working pharmacy profit managers fell on Monday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump known as them middlemen who drive up prices and mentioned he plans to get rid of their position.
CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedWell being Group’s Optum management the vast majority of the U.S. pharmacy profit market, with their dad or mum firms additionally working medical health insurance and pharmacy companies.
Pharmacy profit managers negotiate drug prices with pharmacies and drug producers and assist construct drug protection lists for well being plans, totally on behalf of employers and the federal government. They straight reimburse pharmacies for pharmaceuticals included below their agreed phrases.
“The horrible intermediary that makes more cash, frankly, than the drug firms, and so they do not do something besides they are a intermediary,” Trump mentioned on Monday, at a information convention at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I do not know who these middlemen are, however they’re wealthy,” he mentioned.
Referring to his dinner earlier this month with key executives of drugmakers Pfizer and Eli Lilly, in addition to business lobbying group PhRMA, Trump mentioned he spent a lot of it speaking in regards to the excessive prices of medicine and the way the U.S. pays far more than different international locations.
“We’re going to knock out the intermediary. We’re going to get drug prices down at ranges that no one has ever seen earlier than,” Trump mentioned.
Shares of CVS fell 5.35% to $46.73, Cigna slipped 2.6% to $274.63, whereas UnitedWell being was down 3.54% at $502.07 in afternoon buying and selling.
“CVS leverages free-market competitors to combat again in opposition to pharma value gouging, and we’re pleased with our continued work to make pharmaceuticals extra inexpensive within the United States,” a spokesperson for CVS mentioned, including that the corporate welcomes outreach from federal and state officers to debate its worth.
“Any coverage that limits the usage of (pharmacy profit supervisor) negotiating instruments would depart American sufferers, taxpayers, and companies on the mercy of the costs drugmakers set.”
ExpressScripts and Optum weren’t instantly obtainable for remark.
Pharmacy profit managers got here below a House Oversight Committee investigation for his or her affect over prescription drug costs.
The Federal Trade Commission launched a go well with in September, accusing Caremark, Optum and Express Scripts of artificially growing their revenue by unfairly limiting entry to cheaper insulin medicine and steering sufferers towards dearer choices.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru and Amina Niasse in New York; enhancing by Caroline Humer and Pooja Desai)
