Florida's attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit on August 27, accusing Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics, two of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers, of entering an illegal price-fixing agreement that cut what independent pharmacies are paid to fill prescriptions.
The complaint, filed in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in Polk County, alleges that the two competitors announced a collaboration in December 2019 under which Prime adopted Express Scripts' lower reimbursement rates. The state says the arrangement took effect in April 2020, has been extended repeatedly, and remains in place.
