This week the Texas Pharmacy Association urged Texas Congressional members to support a bipartisan letter by Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asking the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to strengthen proposed guidelines for evaluating future vertical mergers.
Vertical mergers are particularly critical in the pharmacy sector where the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) control more than three quarters of all prescriptions filled in America—equaling more than 3.3 billion prescriptions—and have merged with equally powerful health insurers. Independent pharmacies and patients especially feel the negative affects when health care plans and PBMs merge. The letter explains that agencies must strengthen their approach to vertical merger enforcement to better promote market competition and protect consumers.
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