Cigna is suing the Federal Trade Commission over the “defamatory” report.

Cigna Group Express Scripts sued the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over a recent report the company said demonized pharmacy benefit managers and asked the court to order the agency to withdraw it.

The lawsuit escalates the conflict between drug middlemen and one of the top US antitrust agents examining the industry. Cigna’s Express Scripts unit called the FTC’s July report “unfair, biased, erroneous and defamatory” in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Missouri.

An FTC spokesman said the agency stands by its report.

PBMs manage prescription drug plans for employers and government programs. PBMs argue that they provide a necessary counterbalance to drug companies’ unchecked power to set prices. However, they have faced increasing criticism for opaque business practices.

The agency spent more than two years investigating the PBM industry. Its interim report in July claimed that drug intermediaries were driving patients to their own pharmacies and paying them higher rates.

Cigna and its rivals CVS Health Corp. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. they disputed those claims and pointed to an industry-commissioned report they say refutes much of the FTC’s characterization.

Cigna’s lawsuit accuses the FTC of ignoring much of the data and documents it provided the commission in favor of “unsupported innuendo” against the industry.

The agency rejected Cigna’s claims.

“This is a complicated and opaque market, and the FTC is committed to using its clear authority to help the public and policymakers understand it,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said in an email.

The case is Express Scripts v. Federal Trade Commission, 24-cv-01263, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis).

Photo: Cigna Group headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Photographer: Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg

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