LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is suing a pharmacy benefit manager to stop the company from allegedly fixing prices of reimbursements to AHF pharmacies.
Prime Therapeutics LLC acts as a middle party in the distribution system for prescription drugs nationwide, and in 2020 processed almost 100,000 drug prescriptions for AHF patients, according to the federal suit.
A Prime Therapeutics representative could not be immediately reached for comment on the suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
In late 2019, Prime Therapeutics announced a three-year collaboration with Express Scripts Inc., according to the suit. Almost immediately, AHF noticed that it was being reimbursed less than before for providing the same pharmacy services to patients whose pharmacy benefit manager is Prime Therapeutics, the plaintiff alleges.
“The reimbursement money Prime has been unlawfully taking from AHF is money that can no longer fund the specialized care and lifesaving services that AIDS Healthcare Foundation offers to people living with HIV/AIDS -- regardless of a patient's ability to pay,'' alleged Jonathan M. Eisenberg, deputy general counsel for AHF. ”There is thus a real human cost here.''
AHF has “real reason to fear that we may face retaliation from Prime for exposing it as a price-fixer,'' Eisenberg said. ”However, we take that risk on behalf of the patients and clients we serve and many other independent pharmacies to try to stop Prime's flagrantly unlawful scheme.''
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