- Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin revealed the state is filing a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) Optum and Express Scripts for their role in the state’s ongoing opioid epidemic. In the lawsuit, the state argues the PBMs negotiated deals with opioid manufacturers and exploited rebates, all while failing to protect consumers as they financially benefited. The lawsuit alleges PBMs place opioid drugs on the lower tiers of its formularies, forgoing safety concerns. Additionally, the PBMs operated online retail pharmacies that unleashed “billions of morphine milligram equivalents of opioids” but did not take action against an epidemic they knew existed, the state wrote in the lawsuit. (Article here)
July 16, 2024
Opioid/Substance Use Disorders | Tea Leaves