As the FTC has increasingly prodded PBMs over their role in high drug costs, Express Scripts is fighting back by launching a lawsuit against the agency.

Cigna Group’s pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts on Tuesday sued the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the agency’s July report on the PBM industry was biased and defamatory and asking the court to order the FTC to withdraw the report.

Express Scripts parent company Cigna alleges the Federal Trade Commission ignored more than 3 million pages of documents the pharmacy provided to investigators.

The complaint, filed by Express Scripts owner Cigna against the FTC and Commissioner Lina Khan, is seeking the retraction of the report, which the company claims is "unfair, biased, erroneous, and defamatory" against the PBM industry and is "seventy-four pages of unsupported innuendo."

Express Scripts has filed suit against the Federal Trade Commission, demanding that the agency retract a damning report on the pharmacy benefit management industry. | Express Scripts has filed suit against the Federal Trade Commission,

Express Scripts alleges in its suit that the FTC followed “prejudice and politics, not evidence or sound economics,” and that there is no support for the assertion that the power of PBMs has increased over time.

Express Scripts is suing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), demanding the retraction of a report it claims is false and harmful to the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry.

The US-based pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) claims that the FTC’s July 2024 report is riddled with “false and misleading claims” about the PBM industry.

Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S., filed a lawsuit demanding that a recent FTC report on industry middlemen be vacated.