DeSantis Moves to Lower Prescription Drug Prices, Regulate ‘Middlemen’

In a bid to bring down prescription drug prices in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, on Jan. 12, announced initiatives aimed at drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the companies that act as middlemen in the process.
The measures, which he’ll work with the legislature to carry out, “will protect consumers and increase accountability,” the governor said at The Villages, a large retirement community in Central Florida
Inflation has hit prescription drugs hard, DeSantis said. Their costs went up more than 31 percent from July 2021 to July 2022, “over and above even the general inflation rate.”
The initiatives will aim at middlemen most consumers don’t know about—pharmacy benefit managers who act as go-betweens for manufacturers, insurers, and retailers—he said, adding that three big companies control 80 percent of the market….}