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Drug middlemen illegally drive up the cost of insulin, FTC says
CBSN
Federal regulators are accusing the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers of illegally driving up the cost of insulin in the U.S., while making it harder for patients to obtain cheaper versions of the life-saving drug.
The companies — CVS-owned Caremark Rx, Cigna Group's Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group's Optum Rx — acted in ways that stifled industry competition for insulin drugs, including by using unfair rebating practices, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday.
That artificially raised the list price of insulin, creating what the agency characterized as a "drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates" from drugmakers, the FTC alleged in announcing lawsuits against the three businesses and their affiliates.
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Last fall, before being named the senior U.S. health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Trump administration would liberate Americans from the FDA's "aggressive suppression" of vitamins, dietary supplements, and other substances — ending the federal agency's "war on public health," as he put it.
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Washington — A federal judge on Thursday allowed President Trump's efforts to shrink the federal workforce to continue moving forward while legal proceedings continue, declining a request from a group of labor unions to temporarily block his firing of federal employees and other actions targeting government workers.
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President Trump on Wednesday said he's considering using 20% of the savings from Elon Musk's cost-cutting task force, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to provide direct payments to taxpayers. But economists and policy experts across the political spectrum expressed skepticism about the feasibility of such a "DOGE dividend."
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How Clinton's "reinventing government" compares to DOGE's approach: "We cut fat and they cut muscle"
As President Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency push to slash spending, Republican allies have pointed to a White House program from 30 years ago as akin to DOGE's efforts.