In In the Matter of Cooperativa de Farmacias Puertorriquenas, the Cooperativa de Farmacias Puertorriquenas (Coopharma), a Puerto Rican pharmacy cooperative, agreed to stop negotiating prices on behalf of its more than 300 members for 10 years, as part of an antitrust settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. According to the FTC’s complaint, Coopharma, which consists of the owners of more than 350 pharmacies inPuerto Rico, collectively illegally negotiated prices for some contracts and even won single contracts to cover all of its members with pharmacy benefits managers. FTC further claimed that Coopharma had not made any effort to integrate the pharmacy services of its members, spread financial risk among them or otherwise try to enhance the efficiency of its members’ services, so there was no justification for its actions.
In order to resolve FTC’s concerns, Coopharma agreed to enter into a settlement with FTC. The settlement bars Coopharma from negotiating on behalf of pharmacies with payors, refusing to deal or threatening to refuse to deal with certain payors, or from setting the terms upon which any pharmacy works with any payors, including pricing. The deal also bans the group from helping pharmacies exchange information about contract terms and further allows payors to end their existing contracts with the group without penalty.