Latest news with #PCMA
Business Recorder
13-06-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Chemical-makers for structural reforms, forward-looking policy framework
LAHORE: The Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA) has formally expressed its observations regarding the Federal Budget 2025–26, calling for comprehensive structural reforms and a forward-looking policy framework to strengthen Pakistan's $16 billion chemical sector — a critical enabler of all manufacturing sectors including textiles, leather, Plastics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and packaging. PCMA Chairman Haroon Ali Khan, in his official statement, acknowledged positive budgetary like intent to revive Large Scale Manufacturing, taking notice of misuse of tax incentives for FATA/PATA which is adversely hurting the legitimate manufacturing business and elimination of ACDs. However, he expressed deep concern over the lack of a coherent policy framework for the chemical industry, noting that high energy costs, prolonged GST refund delays, excessive tax burden on legitimate businesses, frequent changes in Policy and misuse of Export Facilitating Scheme are deeply hurting the domestic industries providing raw materials to export oriented sectors such as textile chemicals, leather chemicals & resins etc. These impediments continue to hinder growth. He further added that elimination of 5th Schedule by 2030 will have devastating effects on local industry, especially Chemicals. The Association also expressed alarm over the expanded discretionary powers granted to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Haroon Ali Khan emphasized the need for digital reforms and taxpayer facilitation before enforcing coercive measures that could harm business confidence. PCMA also urges the government to officially designate the chemical industry as a 'strategic sector', ensuring preferential land and utility access, and to establish a one-window platform for environmental and licensing approvals, along with national R&D support programmes. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PBM lobby sues Arkansas over law requiring drug middlemen to sell pharmacies
This story was originally published on Healthcare Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Healthcare Dive newsletter. The main lobby representing pharmacy benefit managers is suing Arkansas in a bid to stop the state's law preventing the drug middlemen from owning pharmacies. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association's lawsuit filed Monday in a federal court argues that Arkansas' law — the first of its kind — is unconstitutional and would result in pharmacies closing and medications becoming more difficult for Arkansans to access. It's the latest legal challenge from the PBM industry as it hustles to halt the law and set a precedent that might dissuade other states from passing similar legislation. Arkansas' legislation, called Act 624, is meant to protect local community pharmacies from larger, more diversified chains by requiring companies that own both PBMs and pharmacies to shutter their operations in the state. When signing Act 624 in April, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the law was necessary to curb anticompetitive behavior among major PBMs that threatens Arkansas' independent pharmacies. However, PBMs — powerful middlemen that shape interactions and payments between drugmakers, payers and pharmacies — decried the law, arguing it eliminates a significant source of efficiency in the pharmacy supply chain by forcing them to sell off their brick-and-mortar stores and halt mail-order pharmacy operations in the state. The policy would unfairly benefit Arkansas-owned pharmacies at their expense, major PBMs said. Now, the PCMA — which represents 20 PBMs, including the so-called 'Big Three' that control an outsized share of the market — is taking to the courts in an attempt to stop the law before it kicks in at the start of 2026. Arkansas' law will cause roughly 40 PBM-owned pharmacies to close, along with eliminating home delivery options and jeopardizing access to specialty drugs for patients managing complex conditions, according to the PCMA's complaint. Act 624 will also lead to job losses and reduce market competition, which could cause costs to to rise for patients and their payers, the association argues. 'We will continue to fight to protect patients' access to health care and educate policymakers and stakeholders about the severe consequences of harmful legislation threatening patient access to pharmacy services,' the PCMA said in an emailed statement. The lobby's lawsuit argues that Act 624 violates the Constitution's Dormant Commerce clause and Privileges and Immunities clause by penalizing out-of-state operators to protect local businesses. The law also violates the Bill of Attainder clause, which forbids states from enacting punishments — in this case, revoking an actor's permit to conduct business — without a court proceeding, according to the complaint. The complaint makes similar legal arguments as prior lawsuits filed against Arkansas' law by CVS and Cigna, which operate two of the largest PBMs in the country: Caremark and Express Scripts, respectively. 'PCMA does not bring this suit because Act 624 is bad policy, although it very certainly is. Rather PCMA brings this suit because Act 624 is as clear an example of unconstitutional state legislation as the Court is likely ever to see,' the complaint reads. The PCMA's suit, which was filed in Arkansas' eastern district against the state's pharmacy board, seeks a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the law while the lawsuit proceeds. Navitus Health Solutions is also a plaintiff in the suit. The Wisconsin-based PBM, which operates on a pass-through model — meaning it makes money only through administrative fees and not by retaining rebates — is not a member of the PCMA. The outcome of the suits could have significant ramifications for the PBM industry, as other states considering similar legislation could be deterred or spurred on by the court's eventual decision. Bills with similar provisions were recently introduced in Vermont, Texas and New York. States are stepping into a gap left by Congress as lawmakers scramble to make prescription drugs more affordable. Despite numerous proposals to rein in controversial PBM business practices over the past few years — including a bill that would force PBMs to sell pharmacy businesses nationwide — Congress has yet to pass significant federal reform. However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Washington have expressed anger over PBMs' business practices in recent hearings. And, the GOP megabill currently being considered by the Senate includes some PBM provisions, including banning spread pricing in Medicaid, preventing PBMs from being paid based on a drug's list price and requiring more transparency about PBMs' business practices. Recommended Reading CVS, Cigna sue Arkansas to overturn new PBM law
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Third federal lawsuit challenges Arkansas' restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers
A woman shops at a Walmart pharmacy in Illinois. () A third federal lawsuit, filed Monday, challenges Arkansas' first-in-the-nation law restricting the activity of pharmacy benefit managers in the state, arguing that it limits both a competitive pharmacy market and patients' access to prescription drugs. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate prescription benefits among drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and health insurance providers, and the biggest ones also own pharmacies and insurers. Navitus Health Solutions, one of the plaintiffs in Monday's lawsuit, urged lawmakers in April not to pass the bill that became Act 624 of 2025. The law bans pharmacy benefit managers from holding a permit to operate a drug store in Arkansas after Jan. 1, 2026. In Monday's complaint, Navitus and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) allege that Act 624 will unfairly prevent out-of-state companies from doing business in Arkansas in the name of keeping local independent pharmacies afloat. 'Not only does Act 624 set out to protect local businesses from competition by out-of-state businesses, but it also aims to punish a discrete population of companies for perceived misconduct,' the complaint states. The Arkansas Insurance Department received thousands of complaints in 2024, claiming PBMs either illegally paid them below, at or just above the national average of what drugstores pay wholesalers for drugs, independent pharmacists and the department's general counsel told lawmakers last year. Arkansas governor signs first-in-the-nation ban on drug middlemen owning pharmacies Act 900 of 2015 required pharmacy benefit managers to pay pharmacies this average price at minimum, and the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed and upheld the law in 2020 after PCMA challenged it. Lawmakers and the Arkansas Pharmacists Association have claimed PBMs also routinely violate two 2018 laws that prohibit them from reimbursing their affiliated pharmacies in Arkansas at a higher rate than their locally owned competitors. The plaintiffs in Monday's lawsuit claim this allegation is false. 'Arkansas has never formally alleged in any judicial proceeding that PCMA's members or Navitus has violated these laws, and such allegations would not hold up in court if ever it did,' the complaint states. The Federal Trade Commission released an interim report in July 2024 saying PBMs are eliminating competition and increasing drug prices at the expense of patients. The report also states that three pharmacy benefit managers — OptumRx, Express Scripts and CVS Caremark — manage 79% of prescription drug insurance claims for approximately 270 million people. Lawmakers of both political parties frequently cited the FTC report when expressing support for Act 624. CVS Pharmacy Inc., Caremark's parent company, and Express Scripts each challenged Act 624 in federal court on May 29. Similarly to Monday's lawsuit, the other two argue that the law violates the U.S. Constitution by interfering with interstate commerce. The three complaints also allege that federal law preempts state laws that affect employee health plans and Medicare coverage. All three suits take issue with Act 624's exemption of the state's largest employer, Walmart, from the ban on PBMs owning pharmacy permits. They also claim Arkansans will lose access to mail-order and specialty pharmacy services, which are the only means of obtaining specific drugs. The lawsuits all ask the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Arkansas to bar enforcement of the law as well as declare it unconstitutional. Similarly to the CVS complaint, PCMA and Navitus' complaint calls Act 624 'unconstitutional economic protectionism, violating the foundational constitutional rule that states may not enact laws to benefit in-state economic interests by burdening out-of-state competitors.' PCMA and Navitus complaint 'This discrimination is not justified by any legitimate, non-protectionist local interest. Even if the state could articulate such an interest, the means chosen — categorically excluding out-of-state PBM-affiliated pharmacies — are not substantially related to the achievement of that interest and are far more restrictive than necessary,' PCMA and Navitus' complaint states. The complaint also calls Act 624 an unconstitutional bill of attainder, meaning it imposes a legislative punishment 'without the benefits and procedural safeguards of a judicial proceeding.' PCMA and Navitus' lawsuit claims that more than 40 pharmacies that cumulatively employ more than 600 Arkansans will lose their permits and be forced to close by the end of the year. CVS claims in its lawsuit that it will be forced to close 23 pharmacies that served more than 340,000 patients and filled over 2.4 million prescriptions in 2024. Express Scripts' complaint states that Act 624 'imperils the health' of the 50,000 Arkansans it serves, including members of the military, their families and veterans because the PBM is the primary mail-order pharmacy provider for Tricare, the military's health insurance program. Act 624 allows the state pharmacy board to issue limited permits to PBMs if they provide 'drugs that are otherwise unavailable in the market to a patient or a pharmacy that would otherwise be prohibited' under the law. Attorney General Tim Griffin reiterated a previous statement that he will defend Act 624 from its challengers. 'PBMs leverage their affiliated pharmacies to manipulate prices, corrupt the market, and destroy competition,' Griffin said, echoing the talking points of the law's supporters in the Legislature. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Axios
09-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: PBM trade group sues Arkansas over pharmacy law
The trade group representing pharmacy benefit managers sued on Monday to overturn a first-in-the-nation state law that prevents them from owning pharmacies in Arkansas. Why it matters: The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association's lawsuit adds to legal challenges to the ownership ban and comes as other states consider similar policies that blame large drug-price middlemen for rising pharmaceutical prices. Navitus Health Solutions, a PBM that's not a member of the trade association, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. CVS Health and Cigna, two of the largest PBMs, have filed their own complaints against the law. What they're saying: The law "will disrupt the way patients, especially patients with very complex medical conditions, receive their medication, and it will require consumers in Arkansas to find new pharmacies," said Katie Payne, senior vice president of public affairs and head of advocacy at PCMA. More than 40 retail pharmacies in Arkansas that together fill millions of prescriptions each year will have to cease operation under the law, according to the complaint. Payne said that the law will worsen drug affordability in the state by prohibiting out-of-state companies from running pharmacies that offer lower-cost options. However, PCMA did not have projections on how Arkansas's law will affect drug prices in the state. Zoom in: The lawsuit claims that Arkansas's policy gives preferential treatment to pharmacies based in the state, violating the Constitution's dormant Commerce Clause and Privileges and Immunities Clause. It also says the law improperly declares PBMs guilty of antitrust violations and delivers punishment without a trial. "Rather than innovating and attempting to compete with PBM pharmacies on the merits, many independent pharmacies have turned to state lawmakers to manipulate the market with the heavy hand of government, to artificially tip the scales of competition in their favor," the complaint alleges. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) has said the law is necessary to hold PBMs accountable for anticompetitive actions. Lawmakers at the state and federal level are increasingly questioning large pharmacy benefit managers like CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx's outsize role in the pharmaceutical supply chain and whether they're contributing to high drug prices. Between the lines: PCMA's complaint notes that an earlier version of the bill would have required Walmart — Arkansas's largest company — to close its pharmacies as well, since the company administers its own pharmacy benefits for employees. State legislators amended the policy before it was passed so Walmart would no longer be subject to the law.
Skift
29-05-2025
- Business
- Skift
Walking Meetings Are a Thing: What Planners Need to Know
Planners are finding that meeting and networking while walking is not just good for your health — it also increases productivity and creativity. Walking meetings date all the way to Ancient Greece and Apple CEO Steve Jobs known for them around the company's Palo Alto campus. Now they're having a moment at major events. Destination Canada held a 'Walk 'n Talk' meeting in January during PCMA's Convening Leaders at Houston's Discovery Green park. The session, which was intended to refresh and inspire attendees, reinforced Destination Canada's brand mission: 'Leave Inspired, Not Tired.' The special guest was Lori McCarthy, a cultural storyteller and founder of Food Culture Place, who led participants through a grounding practice and a discussion on sustainable event planning. The 60 meeting planner walkers were able to access the session on their phones using the conference app. Virginie De Visscher, executive director, business events at Destination Canada, said it was such a success that they are discussing hosting similar walks in the future. "It showed how simple design shifts like taking a breakout session outdoors can boost engagement, spark creativity, and leave delegates genuinely recharged.' Drink 'n Walk Dianne Heffernan, chief events officer/vice president, CCE Global Meetings & Events, came up with the idea of a walking cocktail reception, with F&B stations placed along the High Line in New York City, for a group of 40 neuroscientists attending a Fellowship Award meeting and dinner. 'We were using The Standard, and as I looked out the window of the event space, I saw the High Line and wanted to do something completely different. I worked with a local tour guide service and a caterer who was willing to come up with NYC-themed hors d' oeuvres.' Attendees loved it, she said. 'I'm thinking of doing it again for a SITE Northeast chapter event.' Research from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine points to other benefits as well. Not only do walking meetings contribute to participants' health, but nature and changes of scenery trigger new neuro-pathways in the brain, sparking new ideas and solutions to problems. Walking meetings can also break down boundaries, encourage engagement, and increase productivity. Some Ground Rules Anne Bach Krog Iversen, chief DNA & culture officer at TimeXtender, is a fan of walking meetings, but encourages planners to plan ahead as they would for an indoor meeting. Among her tips: • Choose a suitable route ahead of time, such as a park or a quiet street, and make sure the path is accessible and safe. • Record the meeting for attendees who might not be able to physically attend. • Check the weather and share it with everyone so they can dress appropriately. Remind them to bring comfortable shoes. Have a back-up plan if the weather doesn't cooperate. • Set a clear agenda and align specific discussion points to landmarks or turns in your route to keep the conversation moving and on track. • Supply water at the start and don't allow stops for people who might want a coffee or a cold drink. 'Treat this time with the same respect you would if you were in a meeting room,' she said.
