Lower $1,000 Pill Price? We'd Love It, Says Express Scripts

Lower $1,000 Pill Price? We'd Love It, Says Express Scripts
Caroline Chen Robert Langreth
(Bloomberg) -- More than two years after Express Scripts Holding Co. helped kick off a debate over U.S. pharmaceutical costs by starting a price war over Gilead Sciences Inc.’s expensive hepatitis C pills, the companies are fighting again.

Last week, a senior Gilead executive said that pharmacy benefit managers like Express Scripts profit from high drug prices because it lets them take a bigger slice of the discounts they negotiate for clients. PBMs wouldn’t even let drugmakers cut prices if they asked, said the executive. On Monday, Express Scripts wrote Gilead’s CEO and dared him to go ahead.
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