Berger Montague Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Pharmacy Benefit Manager Express Scripts for Colluding with Rivals

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Jan 10, 2024, 16:15 ET

The lawsuit, which was filed alongside Co-Counsel Hilliard Shadowen LLP, Cuker Law Firm, Roberts Law Firm US, PC, Sperling & Slater LLC, and local counsel Terrell Marshal Law Group PLLC, alleges that Express Scripts entered into a series of unlawful agreements with rival PBMs to fix pharmaceutical reimbursement rates and fees.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Complex litigation powerhouse Berger Montague announces that it filed a lawsuit against Cigna-owned Express Scripts, one of the largest Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM's) in the country. The lawsuit alleges that Express Scripts colluded with rival PBMs Prime, Benecard, and Magellan to fix pharmaceutical reimbursement rates and fees, in violation of the Sherman Act. Several independent, community pharmacies seek to represent a proposed class of pharmacies across the nation and recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in wrongful overcharges.

PBMs are pharmaceutical middlemen that manage pharmacy benefits for health plans. Among other functions, PBMs contract with pharmacies to distribute prescription drugs at reimbursement rates negotiated by the PBM. The complaint alleges that Express Scripts exerted significant leverage over pharmacies due to its substantial market power, and then entered into a series of anticompetitive agreements with smaller rival PBMs. The agreements allowed the smaller PBMs to leverage Express Scripts' market power and impose highly unfavorable reimbursement rates and fees on pharmacies. Express Scripts then demanded and received a share of the excess revenues collected by those rival PBMs.

The complaint was filed in the Western District of Washington by Berger Montague, co-counsel Hilliard Shadowen LLP, Cuker Law Firm, Roberts Law Firm US, PC, Sperling & Slater LLC, and local counsel Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC. Shareholder Joshua P. Davis is leading the case for Berger Montague.

Berger Montague PC is a full-spectrum plaintiffs' law firm that litigates complex civil cases and class actions in federal and state courts throughout the United States and Canada. For more than 53 years, Berger Montague has played lead roles in consequential, precedent-setting cases and has recovered more than $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. A pioneer in the use of class actions in antitrust and securities litigation, the firm has since expanded into consumer, employment, environmental, and insurance litigation. Today, Berger Montague has more than 100 lawyers across eight offices, including its headquarters in Philadelphia, as well as offices in Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Wilmington, Delaware, and Toronto, Canada.