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Judge Tosses Drug Pricing Conspiracy Case Against CVS, UnitedHealth, Evernorth

By  |  January 21, 2026

A federal judge has thrown out a class action lawsuit accusing three of the nation’s largest health-care companies of conspiring to manipulate prescription drug prices through their ownership of pharmacy benefit managers and retail pharmacies.

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    According to Bloomberg, the lawsuit targeted CVS Health Corp., Evernorth Health Inc., and UnitedHealth Group Inc., alleging that the companies coordinated their business strategies to keep drug manufacturer rebates and funnel patients into pharmacies they fully control. The plaintiffs claimed these practices violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and unfairly increased costs for consumers and employers.

    The case was brought by Skye Clements, the Iberia Parish School Board, and the City of Laurel, Mississippi. They argued that the three companies used their vertically integrated structures to dominate the prescription drug market, limit competition, and boost profits at the expense of patients and health plans.

    But the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri ruled Tuesday that the claims did not meet the legal threshold needed to prove an unlawful conspiracy. Per Bloomberg, Judge Beth Phillips said the companies’ actions were not uniform or coordinated closely enough to suggest they were acting together in violation of antitrust law.

    While each company established overseas group purchasing organizations in recent years, the court noted that these moves occurred at different times over a three-year period, weakening the argument that they were part of a single coordinated plan. “Therefore, the fact that each of the Defendants engaged in separate, although similar, business practices over several years is not enough to support Plaintiffs’ antitrust claims,” Phillips wrote in her opinion.

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    Related: Trump Announces New Drug Pricing Deals With Major Pharmaceutical Companies

    The ruling is another setback for plaintiffs seeking to challenge how large, vertically integrated health-care corporations influence drug pricing and access. According to Bloomberg, similar lawsuits accusing major employers of failing to properly negotiate prescription drug costs under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act have also struggled to gain traction in federal courts.

    Judge Phillips also rejected claims under the Robinson-Patman Act, concluding that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing because the law was not intended to address disputes over allegedly inflated prices.

    An attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The plaintiffs are represented by Sharp Law LLP, Burns Charest LLP, Zimmerman Reed PLLP, Gustafson Gluek PLLC, and Steven Williams Law PC. The defendant pharmacy benefit managers and health companies are represented by Spencer Fane LLP, Williams & Connolly, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, Husch Blackwell LLP, and Hinkle Law Firm LLC.

    The case is Clements v. CVS Health Corp., filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri, No. 4:25-cv-00126, with the opinion issued on January 20, 2026.

    Source: Bloomberg