Michigan Case Against Prime, Express Scripts May Spark New Line of Anti-PBM Suits

May 08
May 08, 2025

Since 2019, Prime Therapeutics has tapped The Cigna Group’s Express Scripts to handle contracting negotiations with retail pharmacies, utilizing the larger PBM’s market power to get better deals for Blue Cross Blue Shield-owned Prime. But in a new lawsuit — which could be the first of many — Michigan’s attorney general argues that the Prime/Express Scripts arrangement is anticompetitive.

Prime argues that its network lease agreement is both legal and helps it manage costs for clients and patients. And Express Scripts says it will “vigorously defend” itself against the allegations.
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Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.