Patrick Egan and Steven Groopman, attorneys in the Boston office, recently spoke before the Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations (“CSRO”) about lawsuits targeting Pharmacy Benefit Managers (“PBMs”).
Berman Tabacco is currently leading a class action lawsuit on behalf of EpiPen purchasers against their PBMs, key drug industry middlemen that act as an intermediary between drug manufacturers, insurers, pharmacies and consumers. The lawsuit alleges that instead of negotiating lower prices for EpiPen purchasers PBMs–Express Scripts, CVS Health, and Prime Therapeutics–solicited and profited from increasingly large manufacturer rebates, thereby driving up the price of EpiPen. The lawsuit also alleges that the actions of the PBMs resulted in massive increases in out-of-pocket costs for EpiPen purchasers who pay out-of-pocket deductibles or who have coinsurance.
The CSRO is a group of state or regional professional rheumatology societies formed in order to advocate for excellence in rheumatologic disease care and to ensure access to the highest quality care for the management of rheumatologic and musculoskeletal diseases. Recently, the CSRO’s advocacy mission to shed light on the PBMs role in driving up drug prices for patients.
Dr. Madelaine A. Feldman, Vice President of CSRO and a practicing rheumatologist in New Orleans, invited Berman Tabacco to speak after reading about our EpiPen lawsuit. At the conference, Dr. Feldman conducted a wide-ranging interview with Patrick Egan and Steve Groopman about the EpiPen case, other litigation against PBMs and the role of litigation in shedding light on these major players who play a central role in the prescription drug market, yet “go largely unnoticed by the vast majority of Americans.”