CVS Faces Suit from Local Pharmacy Over ‘One-Sided’ Contracts

CVS Health Corp.was sued by a small Iowa pharmacy alleging that the health-care giant violated antitrust laws, the latest salvo in a conflict between independent drugstores and companies that manage drug plans for millions of Americans.

Osterhaus Pharmacy Inc. said in the suit that CVS’s pharmacy benefit management unit demanded unfair fees to fill and dispense prescriptions for certain Medicare beneficiaries, putting it and other independent drugstores at a competitive disadvantage. The complaint alleges that pharmacies must either sign “one-sided contracts” or lose access to millions of customers covered by the drug plans CVS manages.

A CVS spokesperson ...