Express Scripts Fails to Nix Reimbursement Price-Fixing Claims

Express Scripts Inc. lost its bid to toss antitrust claims in a case alleging it conspired with other benefit managers to fix pharmacy reimbursement rates, as a federal judge found the plaintiffs established antitrust injury.

Judge Richard A. Jones of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington in a Thursday order said the pharmacy plaintiffs met the burdens of asserting a per se antitrust violation for horizontal price-fixing.

The court is satisfied that alleged agreements between Express Scripts and three smaller pharmacy benefits managers — Prime, Benecard, and Magellan — allowed the PBMs “to receive more favorable ...