Hungry for a Win, Drugmakers Seek to Shift Blame for High Prices

The pharmaceutical lobby, seeking to shift blame for high prices, wants Congress to pass legislation reining in the fees by industry middlemen a year after its biggest loss on Capitol Hill.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America is mounting a multi-million-dollar lobbying and advertising effort to crack down on pharmacy benefit managers. Even without legislation enacted, that’s “absolutely” already something of a win that’s helped elicit bipartisan support, the group’s president and CEO, Stephen Ubl said Tuesday.

“There isn’t a whole lot that unites policymakers these days, very little that you can point to that’s bipartisan,” Ubl said in an ...