UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health and Cigna all submitted motions Oct. 8 to remove Lina Khan from the Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
The companies blasted chair Khan as biased and said she should not preside over the case, which accuses the big three pharmacy benefit managers of unfair rebate practices. The insurers are vertically integrated with their PBMs and group purchasing organizations, and the lawsuit argues they were able to artificially inflate the list price of insulin.
Khan has a predetermined opinion on the role of PBMs in the drug pricing landscape, the PBMs assert, and repeatedly makes statements that are incorrect and misleading.
They also say Khan’s public appearances at political and trade group events calls into question her partiality further. Cigna highlighted her appearance at a National Community Pharmacist Association (NCPA) event in 2022, where executives wore “obscene clothing vilifying PBMs.” NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey sported a shirt depicting PBMs as blood-sucking vampires, the motion explained.
The PBMs also want Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter to recuse themselves from the case. They similarly advanced the enforcement proceedings against the PBMs with Khan.
A very public battle is taking place over Khan among the billionaire class and members of Congress. Wealthy donors, not shy to express their opinion, appeared on TV over the summer to call for Khan’s replacement in a new presidential administration. This worried Khan’s supporters, who approve of her aggressive stance on antitrust.
Cost Plus Drug Company founder Mark Cuban is the most recent high-profile name to suggest Khan should be replaced at the FTC, reported Semafor. He believes breaking up big tech will make it harder for the U.S. to win in artificial intelligence.
That sparked a firestorm from Khan’s supporters including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.
Cuban, founder of Cost Plus Drugs and a disrupter to the PBM industry, previously told Fierce Healthcare he approves of Khan’s actions against PBMs but differed on her approach to the tech industry. He did not answer whether he supported removing Khan from the committee.
Harris, meanwhile, announced Tuesday she is in support of reining in PBMs by requiring more transparency.
An interim FTC report dived into the agency’s issues with PBMs, but the companies and their accompanying trade group asserted the FTC was willing to rely on limited data to fulfill a narrative.
UnitedHealth referred to that report in its motion, noting two commissioners who recused themselves did not agree the interim report should be released. Express Scripts sued the FTC days later.