By Amina Niasse

NEW YORK (Reuters) – CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and Cigna (NYSE:CI) have requested U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan and commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya to disqualify themselves from an FTC lawsuit accusing the companies of unlawfully inflating insulin prices.

The three companies operate the largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the U.S. – Caremark, Optum, and Express Scripts. They've submitted their motions with the FTC's in-house court and shared the information with Reuters.

The companies allege that Khan, Slaughter, and Bedoya have shown bias against PBMs and have prejudged their pricing models. CVS highlighted the commissioners' remarks suggesting that volume-based discounts or rebates contribute to increased prices for patients. They also noted Khan's participation in a 2022 event organized by the National Community Pharmacists Association, where attendees criticized PBMs, calling them "bloodsuckers" and depicting them as vampires on clothing.

UnitedHealth indicated that the commissioners' involvement in anti-PBM events demonstrated their prejudice. Cigna's motion called attention to Khan's public statements, suggesting she has predetermined her stance on critical issues in this case.

The document argued that any process involving Khan would lack the "very appearance of complete fairness" that due process mandates. Express Scripts backed CVS's complaint. The FTC lawsuit claims that CVS Health's Caremark, UnitedHealth's Optum, and Cigna's Express Scripts improperly restricted access to lower-priced insulin medications while pushing patients toward costlier alternatives to maximize profits from negotiated discounts.

An FTC spokesperson declined to comment. CVS's response also referenced statements from the commissioners in 2022, where they claimed PBMs exclude cheaper generics and discussed PBMs as "middlemen" between drugmakers and patients in 2024 congressional testimonies. Notably, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta's Facebook (NASDAQ:META) have previously attempted unsuccessfully to disqualify Khan from their antitrust cases.