According to a report commissioned by PhRMA, the three largest pharmacy benefit managers continue to exclude more drugs from standard formularies, including those with expedited FDA approval. 

As they revise and interpret merger guidelines, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice should pay particular attention to the anticompetitive impact of consolidation in the pharmacy benefit manager market, the generic trade group suggests.

After motion to advance fails at 17 February meeting, proposed study design will be revamped, not scrapped. Despite the 2-2 deadlock on the vote, commissioners uniformly expressed an interest in proceeding with research on PBM industry, focusing on the leading players.

Avoiding disaster at the beginning of the pandemic and offering a pro-active supply chain blueprint should position the generics industry well for an onshoring debate in Congress, but a look back at March 2020 is a reminder that even small policy shifts can have a big impact.