NPR. The CEO of Novo Nordisk, a datish company that makes the weight loss drugs

Ozempik and Wigovi, was on Capitol Hill yesterday. A Senate committee questioned

Lars Frogard Jorgensen on why those drugs cost close to a

thousand dollars for a month supply in the US. That's more than five times higher

than the next highest internationalist price in Japan.

Jorgensen blamed the complicated health insurance system in the US, which includes pharmacy

benefit managers, aka PBM's.

We have to negotiate against PMs and they are an insurance

company not taking much risk and yet benefiting from it to the list price. I think

that's absurd. This follows the US Federal Trade Commission

filing a lawsuit against three of the country's biggest PBMs just last week

CVS Caremark Express Scripts and Optum Rx.

The FTC claims these companies engaged in unfair practices

that artificially inflated insulin prices.

So, what the heck are PVM's and why do they have so much power in the medicinal marketplace?

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Darien Woods.

And I'm Adrian Ma. To answer that question, we're going to share with you an

episode we originally ran two years ago. And as you'll hear, the power of PBMs involves

secret deals and double agents.

Look, raising a teen is tough.

You know, it's always been hard to be a teenager and it's always been hard to raise a teenager.

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