12/14/2011 3:00 PM 

Says PBMs' flawed claims are "illustrative" of current practices and future actions if anti-competitive and anti-consumer merger is allowed

NACDS submitted comments to U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), clarifying misleading statements made by Express Scripts CEO George Paz and Medco CEO David Snow at a recent hearing of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

“We believe that these witnesses obfuscated facts in an effort to portray their companies in a better light, downplaying many of their companies’ objectionable activities that would certainly worsen if the two companies were allowed to merge,” NACDS said in its comments.

In one example,NACDS questioned Mr. Snow’s testimony that every state board of pharmacy and every state insurance commission regulates his firm.  NACDS urged Sen. Kohl to explore this assertion further.

“PBMs have generally been successful in opposing efforts at state regulation. Only a couple of states directly regulate the activities of a PBM through a board of pharmacy, and the regulation in those states is weak, at best. As such, boards of pharmacy are limited in their oversight of PBMs,” NACDS wrote.