Legal issue part of intense debate over who’s to blame for skyrocketing prices.

January 29, 2017

An unnamed Dayton man is at the center of a $15 billion lawsuit that pits two often vilified segments of the health care system against one another over the cost of prescription drugs.

John Doe One is an HIV/AIDS patient whose bills for the life-saving drug Atripla — even with insurance coverage — have been more than $1,200 a month, according to the class-action federal lawsuit in which he’s a lead plaintiff.

The man and other patients who get their health coverage through Anthem Inc. are suing pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, claiming the company schemed to inflate prescription drug prices affecting 38 million patients.

It is just the latest in a series of legal actions and accusations against the pharmacy benefit manager industry — middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain — for driving up the cost of drugs through various opaque practices.

Click here to read the full article in the Dayton Daily News.