NASP Responds to FTC Findings and Reiterates Plea:
Specialty Pharmacies and Their Patients Can’t Continue to Wait for PBM Reform-Related Pharmacy Protections
WASHINGTON, DC (January 15, 2025) – The National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) issued the following statement after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a second interim report this week on certain PBM practices and the impact vertically integrated businesses have on access to and the affordability of medications.
NASP, representing all types of specialty pharmacies that support patients with significant and complex diseases (cancer, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, cystic fibrosis, organ transplantation, rare diseases, etc) thanks the FTC for it’s long-term study of PBM use of specialty drug lists, specialty drug policies, and practices that limit specialty pharmacy networks and steer specialty patients and drugs away from those specialty pharmacies that are not otherwise owned or affiliated by a PBM or their vertically integrated partners.
NASP President and CEO Sheila Arquette, RPh stated, “This report and any actions to change laws and enforce current regulations has been a long time coming. While the voice of all non-affiliated specialty pharmacies — independent, hospital-based, retail, grocer-based, and others– can be heard in some of the FTC’s findings, we find ourselves asking ‘how many more reports and investigations are needed before Congress and an Administration take action?’ Underwater reimbursement to non-affiliated pharmacies, patient steering, and other deliberate efforts identified by the FTC to preclude accredited specialty pharmacies from network participation must be addressed. These actions limit patient access to the specialty pharmacies of their choice that patients rely on to manage their complex and often life threatening specialty diseases and conditions.”