Express Scripts, one of the country’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, sued the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Tuesday and demanded the agency retract a report saying the industry middlemen

Whether Express Scripts wins its unique defamation lawsuit will depend on whether the PBM can prove the FTC made false statements. But winning the lawsuit may not be what the PBM is looking for.

Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts sued the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday over the regulator's recent drug pricing report, calling the report's conclusion that the prescription middlemen raise drug costs defamatory.

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday filed lawsuits against three prescription drug benefit managers or PBMs over concerns the companies are artificially inflating the list price of insulin drugs.

At issue is a report released by the FTC in July called: “Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs and Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies.” Express Scripts claims in the lawsuit that the report “is seventy-four pages of unsupported innuendo” leveled against it and other PBMs.

The owner of one of the three largest pharmacy middlemen in the United States on Tuesday filed suit to quash an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to investigate industry practices. However, the suit relies on research that the health conglomerate helped pay for and was conducted by an economist who’s become wealthy arguing in

Cigna's Express Scripts, one of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers, today sued the Federal Trade Commission and its chair, Lina Khan, over what the company asserts was a report filled with false and misleading claims about how pharmacy benefit management firms operate.