[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4258-S4259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Federal Trade Commission

  Ms. CANTWELL. 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.

[[Page S4259]]

  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. My colleague Senator Grassley and I have legislation 
outlawing some of these practices at the FTC; and our colleagues 
Senator Crapo and Senator Wyden also have legislation that would help 
us on PBMs. So I thank my colleagues.