Regulators say the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers are partly to blame for the soaring cost of insulin in the U.S.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday sued the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for engaging in alleged anticompetitive practices that boosted profits while

The FTC said CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx profit at the expense of patients forced to pay more for insulin.

The enforcement action is part of an escalating conflict between the FTC and the three pharmacy benefit managers that together control about 80% of prescriptions filled in the US.

Pharmacy-benefit managers owned by CVS, Cigna and UnitedHealth “artificially inflated” prices for lifesaving medications, regulator alleges.

The agency alleges CVS’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx accepted money from drugmakers in exchange for keeping lower-cost insulin off their lists of approved

On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a formal complaint against three major pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—CVS Health Inc’s (NYSE:CVS) Caremark, Cigna Corp’s (NYSE:CI) Express Scripts,

The three price benefit managers jointly administer 80% of all prescriptions in the U.S., the FTC said in the lawsuit.

The Federal Trade Commission has brought an administrative complaint against three of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), accusing them of engaging in practices that artificially inflated the list price of insulin drugs.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers on Friday, accusing them of steering diabetes patients towards higher priced insulin in order to reap millions of dollars in rebates from pharmaceutical companies.