AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) applauds the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for taking decisive action against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that drive up costs for insulin, a product never intended to generate financial windfalls. The original developers of insulin deemed it unethical to profit off the life-saving therapeutic, selling the patent to the University of Toronto for just $1 in 1923. For the last 25 years, PBMs decided to make a once relatively inexpensive drug a significant part of their revenue streams.

Thanks to the FTC, the three largest PBMs – Caremark Rx, OptumRx, and Express Scripts – will face legal consequences for their anticompetitive abuses involving insulin. As recently as 1999, the average cost of Humalog, a brand name insulin, cost just $21. Instead of allowing millions of vulnerable diabetics to access their medication with financial ease, PBMs saw a revenue opportunity. The drug middlemen rigged their formularies, steering patients to higher priced insulin when cheaper alternatives were readily available. The result of PBM efforts to maximize profits through rebates skyrocketed the price of Humalog to $274 by 2017.

AHF knows firsthand how PBM middlemen manipulate the prescription drug supply chain at the expense of independent pharmacies. PBMs exploit their privileged position by steering Americans toward more expensive medications, all to make more money. The sticker shock many Americans confront at the pharmacy counter is no accident. PBMs made a choice, putting profits over the health outcomes of the medically underserved. AHF welcomes the continued efforts by FTC Chair Khan to punish drug supply chain middlemen for their litany of abusive business practices.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 2.1 million individuals across 47 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

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