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The Federal Trade Commission says pharmacy benefit managers have inflated drug costs while squeezing independent pharmacies, enriching some of the largest companies in the U.S. at the expense of patients. An interim FTC report released Tuesday details the market influence of companies known as PBMs, which are hired and, in many cases, owned by health insurers to manage drug benefits within

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The consolidation of pharmacies and health insurance companies through years of deal making has led to a handful of pharmacy benefit managers exercising outsized influence over prescription drug prices, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday. Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, act as middlemen between drug companies and consumers. They negotiate

Top Republican state lawmakers have asked a federal judge to pause a third lawsuit challenging 2023 changes to North Carolina’s state election law. The judge already has placed two related lawsuits on hold this month. Unlike the other two cases, plaintiffs from the left-of-center activist group Democracy North Carolina have not agreed to stay the proceedings in their case.

On April 23, 2024, the FTC announced the issuance of a final rule banning employers from entering into, enforcing, or attempting to enforce post-employment non-compete clauses with workers, subject to limited exceptions, and invalidating all existing non-competes with a narrow exception for certain senior executives (FTC: Non-Compete Clause Rule (Final Rule)). If and when it becomes effective