New Orleans (AP) – Louisiana filed several complaints in which the pharmaceutical giant life run against customer information was misused and its dominant market position was used to augment the drug costs and unjust independent pharmacies, the Attorney General said on Tuesday.
Attorney General Liz Murrill began with the investigation of rushers after the company sent mass text messages to thousands of residents on June 11th to praise laws that were directed towards its business structure. The texts warned that the medication costs could augment and that all CVS pharmacies in the state would close.
The lawsuits submitted in the municipality of St. Landry in Central -Louisiana on Monday are looking for “omissions, civil penalties and reimbursement,” said Murrill.
CVS “abused the sensitive information from customers to transfer a political message,” said Republican governor Jeff Landry at a press conference on Tuesday.
He noticed that CVS had praised his wife about the same messaging chain about the same messaging chain, which was normally used to inform her about taking up a prescription medication or other healthcare matters.
In a lawsuit it is argued that the SMS lobby lobby work was “unfair or misleading actions” in violation of the State Commercial Act. Two law firms based in Louisiana have submitted a separate class action against CVs via the text messages.
CVS has contested any misconduct.
“Our communication with CVS customers, patients and members of the community agreed with the law,” said CVS in an e -mail declaration. “We believe that it was important for people to know about a possible disorder where they get their medicine.”
Two other complaints claim that CVs artificially inflate the prices for consumers and independent pharmacies.
CVS serves as a pharmacy benefit manager – essentially a mediator who buys medication from manufacturers and distributes medicines to pharmacies.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, which in a report from 2024, CVS and the mail order pharmacy dominate express scripts that dominate the market by working about eight out of 10 damage for prescription drugs that enables “inflation of medicinal products and pressing the main streets”.
Since CVS also has a huge network of retail pharmacies – including 119 in Louisiana – the conditions for the prescription medication sold are determined there.
The proposed law that triggered the text messages of CVS had tried to ban managers like CVs in pharmacy to own drugstores. The law could not say goodbye, but Landry said that he would try to revive it.
In the state’s legal disputes, Murrill claims that CVS business structure and practices enable the company to “manipulate prices, to restrict competition and to channel internal profits”.
A lawsuit accuses the CV to “record systematically independent pharmacies in Louisiana to economic difficulty and to guide patients in CVs in CVS”. In the lawsuit it is claimed that CVS imposes “unethical, unscrupulous and exorbitant high fees for independent pharmacies”.
CVS said that it should not pay higher interest rates for “less efficient pharmacies” and that this would lead to “higher costs for consumers”.
“It is important that the CVS pharmacy remains the cost -effective pharmacy and a critical partner when reducing the prescription drug costs for Louisians,” said the company.
Another lawsuit argues that CVS uses its market control to exclude lower cost -effective medicinal products for “high -ranking, high -priced branded medication” and other practices that “increase the drug market” and “increase costs for the state and its citizens’ state programs”.
CVS said that his business structure “enables better access, affordability and advocacy for those who serve”. The company said that the removal of CVS pharmacies from Louisiana would augment the costs for the state by more than 4.6 million US dollars.
Landry said that he would strive for up-to-date laws for CVs if the existing laws were not enough to win in court.
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Brook is a member of the Corps for the “Associated Press/Report” initiative for America Statehouse News. The report for America is a non -profit National Service program that reports journalists in local news editorial offices on hidden topics.
