Washington, D.C. — Large pharmacy benefit managers, led by their big law firm Gibson Dunn, are launching an intimidation campaign against the media, independent pharmacies, and advocacy groups. Last week, they demanded correspondence between them and law enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission, which is right now investigating PBMs for illegally inflating the price of pharmaceuticals.

Specifically, they sought all communications related to PBM drug rebate practices between FTC officials and, among others, The New York Times, Mark Cuban, the American Economic Liberties Project, 46 Brooklyn, and independent pharmacies.

“These wide-ranging demands are clearly an attempt to scare Americans with information on illegal activities by monopolists from talking to law enforcement,” the American Economic Liberties Project said in a statement. “The role of Gibson Dunn and Obama-era ex-government enforcers — Samuel Liversidge, Kristen C. Limarzi, Michael J. Perry, Sophia A. Hansell, Matthew S. Rozen — is particularly concerning. The bar has a serious problem with lawlessness among prestigious white collar lawyers, who are coming close to becoming co-conspirators with their clients.”

Gibson Dunn has a long history of intimidation and bad faith in defending monopolists. In August, another ex-Obama enforcer at Gibson Dunn, Stephen Weissman, demanded that advocates cease using publicly available information about his client, RealPage, when communicating to policymakers about price fixing in the rental markets. In February of 2023, Gibson Dunn was sanctioned in its representation of big tech firm Meta for “egregious” and “sustained, concerted, bad-faith attempt” to thwart the plaintiffs in discovery over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.