The American Pharmacy Cooperative penned a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department June 30, urging the agencies to stop Prime Therapeutics' proposal to acquire Magellan, its rival pharmacy benefit manager, because the deal would reduce competition amid an already murky business.
The APCI also pressed the agencies to review Centene's — the nation's largest Medicaid managed care organization — 2021 acquisition of Magellan after the PBM settled multiple cases since the acquisition for more than $275 million in seven states.
"Simply put, Prime Therapeutics' acquisition is likely to create more conflicts of interest, reduce competition, and lead to greater inefficiencies in an already inefficient and flawed system," the letter said. The tentative acquisition "raises serious horizontal anti-competitive concerns."
If Prime Therapeutics closes its deal with Magellan, the company "would grow its footprint by approximately 50 percent," according to the APCI.
The FTC launched an investigation June 7 of Prime Therapeutics, along with five other PBMs, over "opaque" business practices after years of allegations slammed the middlemen who work between insurers and payers. Pharmaceutical organizations praised the FTC's probe into the anti-competitive and drug price-hiking allegations.