News and Reports | July 14, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With today’s Caremark settlement, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has now reached settlements with all three of the nation’s largest Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), resolving claims that CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and OptumRx engaged in practices that artificially inflated insulin prices and harmed patients.
In response, Merith Basey, CEO of Patients For Affordable Drugs, released the following statement:
“We welcome today’s settlement curbing the power of PBM giants Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx who control the vast majority of America’s prescriptions. The settlements include long-overdue measures that delink PBM compensation from list prices, allow patient cost-sharing to be based on a drug’s net price, and ensure fairer reimbursement to community pharmacies. To build a fairer, more transparent drug market, lawmakers must continue pursuing reforms that hold both drugmakers and PBMs accountable for abusive practices that drive up costs for patients — while also working to prevent them in the first place.”
Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx control roughly 80% of prescriptions filled in the United States. The FTC’s 2025 report found that the three PBMs generated $7.4 billion by inflating the prices of 51 lifesaving drugs between 2017 and 2022.
This settlement follows the bipartisan legislation enacted earlier this year that codified reforms to how PBMs are compensated in Medicare. Together, congressional action and FTC enforcement efforts represent progress toward greater accountability in the prescription drug supply chain.
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Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only national patient advocacy organization focused exclusively on policies that lower prescription drug prices. We empower and mobilize patients by amplifying their experiences with high drug prices to hold those in power to account and fight to shape and achieve system-changing policies that make prescription drugs affordable for all people in the United States. P4AD does not accept funding from organizations that profit from the development and distribution of drugs. To learn more, visit PatientsForAffordableDrugs.org