Cigna Group’s pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts on Tuesday sued the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the agency’s July report on the PBM industry was biased and defamatory and asking the court to order the FTC to withdraw the report.

Cigna's Express Scripts, one of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers, today sued the Federal Trade Commission and its chair, Lina Khan, over what the company asserts was a report filled with false and misleading claims about how pharmacy benefit management firms operate.

The complaint targets the group purchasing organizations affiliated with the "big three" pharmacy benefit managers: CVS Caremark, Optum Rx and Express Scripts.

Express Scripts is suing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), demanding the retraction of a report it claims is false and harmful to the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry.

Express Scripts parent company Cigna alleges the Federal Trade Commission ignored more than 3 million pages of documents the pharmacy provided to investigators.

As the FTC has increasingly prodded PBMs over their role in high drug costs, Express Scripts is fighting back by launching a lawsuit against the agency.

The complaint, filed by Express Scripts owner Cigna against the FTC and Commissioner Lina Khan, is seeking the retraction of the report, which the company claims is "unfair, biased, erroneous, and defamatory" against the PBM industry and is "seventy-four pages of unsupported innuendo."

The US-based pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) claims that the FTC’s July 2024 report is riddled with “false and misleading claims” about the PBM industry.

Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S., filed a lawsuit demanding that a recent FTC report on industry middlemen be vacated.