Health insurer Anthem cuts ties with pharmacy-benefits manager Express Scripts

New York

BEING the middleman standing between drugmakers and insurance companies is getting to be more uncomfortable.

Health insurance giant Anthem Inc moved to sever ties with pharmacy-benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co on Wednesday, opting instead to build its own such business in collaboration with CVS Health Corp as it looks to contain its spiralling drug costs.

The pharmacy-benefits management business has been under widening scrutiny. Lawmakers, consumers and insurers, among others, have complained that pharmacy-benefits managers, or PBMs, use opaque deals and rebates to pad their profits.

Several states hav…