For those engaged in the Philadelphia area’s bustling life sciences industry, navigating and complying with new regulations can be a difficult, sometimes even fraught, process.

But local law firms are preparing for an approaching wave of regulation and scrutiny by both federal and state governments. […]

Shining a Spotlight on PBMs

Coming under new pressure from federal and state governments are entities known as pharmacy benefit managers, who serve as middlemen between drug manufacturers and insurance carriers and help to, amongst other things, create pharmacy networks and negotiate rebates. […]

One example is the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act, which is currently making its way to the U.S. Senate after passing a committee vote at the end of March.

Duane Morris pharmacy litigation practice chair Jonathan Swichar claims the bill “addresses the multiple scenarios in which PBMs have been under-reimbursing independent pharmacies” and “provides the FTC enforcement action if PBMs do not comply with the terms of the bill.” […]

While other states have laws regulating PBMs and protecting independent pharmacies, Swichar noted that “unfortunately, the state of Pennsylvania law today is the same as it has been for a number of years.” 

“Pennsylvania continues to be in the minority on all fronts with regard to passing laws to the protection of independent pharmacies,” he said.

[…] Swichar sees things taking a different direction in the future should the PBM Transparency Act pass the Senate.

“Once the bill has been passed and the FTC has this enforcement authority in place, we’re likely to see a decrease in the amount of litigation that the independent pharmacies will have had to bring over the past few years,” he said. […] 

To read the full article, please visit The Legal Intelligencer.

Reprinted with permission from The Legal Intelligencer, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.