David Joyner, a long-term CFS director, speaks during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Horn Seat in Washington, DC, on 10 May 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty images
CVS Health CEO David Joyner defended controversial pharmacy intermediaries such as the Caremark unit of his company on Wednesday, which are widely accused of inflating drug prices for recipe, and instead accused manufacturers of “monopolistic tendencies” that costs drugs in the US keep high
Joyner, who stepped into the role in October, spent many of his opening comments on the company's profit call in the fourth quarter on discussing so-called pharmacie benefit managers or PPEs. It was atypical for CVS's quarterly call to start in this way, but comes at a time when the legislators on both sides of the aisle and President Donald Trump have indicated the interest in combating PPE.
CVS owns Caremark, one of the three largest PPEs in the country that together manage about 80% of the recipes in the US
These intermediaries negotiate discounts with medicines on behalf of insurers, make lists of medicines known as formularies covered by insurance and reimburses pharmacies for recipes. But both legislators and drug makers claim that PPEs overload the plans for which they negotiate discounts, underpaid pharmacies and fail to pass on savings of those discounts to patients.
Joyner acknowledged that the increasing health care costs in the US are under pressure from patients, employers and the federal government. He blamed factors such as the increased use of the patient of services, increasing costs for healthcare provider, labor shortages, labor shortages and “dramatic price increases” for brand medicines.
But he said that PPE such as Caremark “are one of the most powerful forces that help compensate for rising healthcare costs,” and claims that they are the only part of the supply chain of the medicines that are exclusively aimed at lowering costs .
“Our work is a critical counterbalance for the monopolistic tendencies of medicines manufacturers,” said Joyner. “This is why PPEs are needed and why manufacturers are fighting so hard to limit our options.”
He claimed that manufacturers of the brand $ 21 billion in annual gross drug expenditure added in the first three weeks of January through their price increases, but did not quote where the figure comes from.
Joyner added that several economists have estimated that PPEs generate a net value for the American health care system, more than $ 100 billion a year.
“Nobody has demonstrated success more than the PPE of lowering drug prices,” he said.
However, the pharmaceutical industry and the legislators claim that PPE and insurers who give savings from negotiated discounts and discounts instead of passing them on to patients.
In a statement on Wednesday, Phrma, the largest lobbying group in the country for the pharmaceutical industry that PPEs are “under intense, well -deserved control”.
“Bipartisan State Attorneys -General, policy makers in both congress and state laws and the FTC all investigate these conglomerates of health care,” said a FHRMA spokesperson. “They have all come to the same conclusion: PPE increase costs and reduce access at the expense of patients, employers and our health care system.”
