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Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi Tours Local Pharmacy, Blasts PBMs for Marking Up Prescription Drugs and Driving Out Pharmacy Competition

January 29, 2025

CHICAGO – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) discussed the alarming rise in prescription drug costs and the importance of protecting local and independent pharmacies. Speaking at Del-Kar Drugs, a nearly 65-year-old independent pharmacy in the North Lawndale neighborhood, Congressman Krishnamoorthi pointed to a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) interim staff report that revealed pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are prioritizing their own affiliated pharmacies over small businesses such as Del-Kar Drugs. The report also found PBMs are significantly up charging for specialty generic prescription drugs used to treat HIV, cancer, and other serious medical conditions. Combined, these two practices have allowed PBMs to corner the pharmacy market, with the three largest PBMs now operating 80 percent of the prescription drug market.

“The main benefits pharmacy benefit managers bring to the table are for themselves and their bottom lines, not patients or the local and independent pharmacies that millions of Americans depend on to fill their prescriptions,” Congressman Krishnamoorthi said. “This FTC report clearly shows that by jacking up prescription drug costs and unfairly favoring their own pharmacies over small, local, patient-trusted institutions like Del-Kar Drugs, PBMs are raking in enormous profits at the expense of patients and small businesses. While Illinoisans struggle to keep up with the cost of medication and neighborhood pharmacies continue to be wiped out across Illinois, PBMs are making record profits off drugs used to treat cancer. The time for PBM reform is long overdue, and Congress should use this report to finally enact change that puts patients first.”

The three largest PBMs, Caremark Rx, Express Scripts, and OptumRx, generated roughly $7.3 billion in profits due to artificial price hikes on medication over a five-year period beginning in 2017, leaving patients to pay more for their prescriptions out of pocket. Of the specialty drugs analyzed in the FTC report, 63 percent were marked up by more a than hundred percent, and 22 percent were marked up by more than a thousand percent. Some of the steepest markups, often by hundreds or thousands of dollars, were on prescription drugs used to treat cancer and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 local and independent pharmacies were forced to close in 2024, due in part to PBMs favoring their own pharmacies. In Illinois, 73 percent of counties are classified as pharmacy deserts with no open pharmacy located within 10 miles. In Chicago between 2015 and 2020, more than half of pharmacy closures came in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi, recently named the ranking member of the Health and Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee, has been a congressional leader on reining in the power of PBMs. During his time in Congress, Congressman Krishnamoorthi has introduced several pieces of bipartisan legislation that would reform PBMs and work to protect patients and independent pharmacies.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi was joined at the press conference by Illinois Pharmacist Association President Dave Bagot, PBM Patient Advocate Heather Anderson, and Del-Kar owner and pharmacist Edwin Muldrow.