Liz Murrill, the attorney general of Louisiana, declared that she is looking into whether the massive pharmaceutical company CVS inappropriately utilised the personal information of its clients to send out text messages that lobbied against a proposed state bill. She said that in order to halt the texts, she intends to send the business a cease-and-desist letter.
Lawmakers displayed images of text texts received by CVS during their discussion of a now-failed measure.
What does the bill mean for drug pricing?
The proposed law would have made it illegal for businesses to own both drugstores and pharmaceutical benefit managers. Retail pharmacies and CVS Caremark, one of the top three pharmacy benefit managers in the US with a market share of over 100 million members, are owned by the CVS Health Corporation. In their capacity as intermediaries, CVS Caremark and other managers buy prescription medications from producers and establish the conditions under which they are supplied to clients.
Did CVS misuse private data to influence legislation?
A link to a sample letter encouraging lawmakers to oppose the measure was included in the company’s text messages to Louisiana citizens. The recipients may sign the letter using their email address and forward it to politicians. One of the texts was received by a Republican legislator. Representative Bryan Fontenot, a Republican, displayed his phone to demonstrate that he had also gotten a text message from CVS.
“It is utilised to inform me when my prescription is filled,” he stated. “They are now using that to text me about politics.”
According to Murrill, CVS lobbied against proposed laws regarding the company’s pharmacy benefits manager by sending letters to a significant number of state employees and their families.
In order to obtain pharmaceutical information, such as vaccination availability or prescription pick-ups, customers provided CVS with their phone numbers. However, the firm is utilising this personal information for its own corporate objectives in violation of ongoing laws. “Murrill said.”
A conference committee, which is frequently used in the statehouse when the House and Senate cannot agree on final drafts of a law, drafted the change behind closed doors.
As the state legislature came to an end Thursday afternoon, Republican Governor Jeff Landry persisted in advancing the law. With an 88-4 vote, the bill was overwhelmingly approved by the House, which supporters claimed would support independent pharmacies and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Rep. Mandie Landry was one of those who voted against the legislation. Despite her desire to vote in favour, the Democrat claimed that she was getting messages from individuals in her constituency telling her not to. She said that CVS’s lobbying efforts impacted them, and they were thus concerned that they would not be able to obtain their prescription drugs.
