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House Panel Alleges CVS Used Contracts to Suppress Pharmacy Competition

By  |  January 21, 2026

A congressional investigation has concluded that CVS Health may have crossed legal lines by using its market power to restrict independent pharmacies from accessing lower-cost services, according to The Hill.

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    The House Judiciary Committee released a report Wednesday asserting that CVS, through its pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark, may have engaged in practices that limit competition in the digital pharmacy space. The panel, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), launched its inquiry in December 2024 to examine whether the company’s contracts and business strategies were designed to shut out rival services, per The Hill.

    The investigation focused on CVS’s relationship with so-called pharmaceutical hubs—third-party online platforms that help patients obtain specialty medications and provide greater transparency around pricing. According to the committee’s findings, CVS allegedly studied how these hubs worked and then altered its own network rules to prevent independent pharmacies from partnering with them, according to The Hill.

    The report says internal records show CVS used its pharmacy network agreements as leverage, warning independent pharmacies that they could lose access to CVS’s network if they continued working with outside hub services. Lawmakers concluded that this strategy may have limited patient choice and hindered innovation in a rapidly growing segment of the pharmacy market.

    Related: DOJ Reviewing Potential Antitrust Challenge to Pharmacy Software Deal

    The committee described CVS’s interest in expanding into digital pharmacy services as intensifying in 2019, when the company faced competition from online providers such as PillPack, Phil, and Blink. At the time, CVS reportedly viewed online pharmacy models as central to the industry’s future and sought to build its own competing hub, according to the report.

    The panel further stated that after monitoring rival hubs and the pharmacies that worked with them, CVS began taking steps aimed at cutting off those competitors. Lawmakers wrote that this behavior could rise to the level of an antitrust violation.

    “It is possible that CVS Health’s conduct violated the antitrust laws,” the report concludes.

    In response, a CVS spokesperson said Wednesday that the company is reviewing the committee’s findings.

    The investigation adds to growing scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers, which play a central role in negotiating drug prices and determining which pharmacies can participate in major insurance networks. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have increasingly questioned whether the industry’s structure allows large firms to dominate the market at the expense of smaller providers and consumers.

    Source: The Hill.