HARTFORD, CT — As the administrator of the state employees health insurance plan, State Comptroller Kevin Lembo is taking steps to try and block the use of “outrageously expensive specialty drugs.”
Lembo said a review of pharmacy practices confirmed that the vast majority of prescriptions dispensed by two Connecticut pharmacies through the state health plan are for drugs manufactured by just one single drug manufacturer, Horizon Pharma.
At those two pharmacies, according to claims data, 70 percent of prescriptions they filled for the state plan were for Horizon Pharma products alone, Lembo said.
The data raises questions “about what possible incentives are motivating such a high concentration of prescriptions for Horizon’s products,” Lembo added.
According to Lembo, “Horizon specializes in expensive drugs — costing more than $1,000 per prescription, in some cases — even though these medications are essentially just combinations of affordable over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen and Pepcid AC or Aleve and Nexium.”
A spokesman for Horizon disagrees with Lembo’s assessment and description of its drugs.
“At Horizon Pharma, a primary focus is to ensure that patients have access to the medicines their physicians prescribe while limiting their financial burden,” Matt Flesch, executive director of product communications for Horizon, said in an emailed statement. “For clarification, there are no FDA-approved generic, over-the-counter or clinically equivalent medicines to the medicines (DUEXIS and VIMOVO) Mr. Lembo mentions so saying that those medicines are ‘essentially combinations of affordable over-the-counter drugs’ is completely inaccurate.”
Flesch went on to state that “In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prescribing information for DUEXIS and VIMOVO specifically states, ‘do not substitute DUEXIS with the single-ingredient products of ibuprofen and famotidine’ and ‘do not substitute VIMOVO with the single-ingredient products of naproxen and esomeprazole magnesium,’ respectively. Additionally, all pharmacies that distribute Horizon branded medicines are fully independent. We have policies and governance in place to ensure that any interactions with pharmacies, payors and providers comply with all state and federal laws.”
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
Lembo said that, according to state claims data, one prescriber alone accounted for $1.5 million in prescriptions for Horizon products or 11.6 percent of total amount of Horizon products prescribed through the state plan.
“My office will continue to work in partnership with other state officials to block unnecessary costs to the state plan and investigate troubling pharmaceutical trends,” Lembo said.
More Health Care News & Analysis

AG’s Tackle Mental Health Parity
Attorneys General in Connecticut and Rhode Island threw their support Monday behind a coalition of mental health advocacy groups asking a federal appeals court to revisit a recent ruling giving insurance companies more flexibility to deny mental health claims.
Keep reading
Budget Green Lights Psychedelic Therapies
Buried in the budget Gov. Ned Lamont signed this week is a provision that would create a pilot program to allow Connecticut to be the first-in-the-nation to study the impact of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA on patients with depression and PTSD. The budget now creates a pilot program within the Department of Mental…
Keep reading
Officials Highlight Effort To Boost Mental Health Services For Kids
At a Hartford-based community provider Wednesday, Gov. Ned Lamont and a handful of his agency commissioners highlighted the expected impact of more than $100 million in recently passed funding aimed at increasing behavioral health services for Connecticut children. The governor appeared at The Village for Families and Children, a recipient of new state funding included…
Keep reading
Democrats Turn Focus To Roe v. Wade
With the legislative session and the conventions in the rearview mirror, Democrats in Connecticut are turning their focus to the U.S. Senate and the upcoming vote to codify Roe v. Wade and the impact it could have on the 2022 Elections. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy was on Fox News Sunday talking about the issue, which…
Keep reading
OP-ED | Policymakers Did Little to Lower Healthcare Costs This Session
Last year, Connecticut policymakers accomplished little to reduce the cost of healthcare, and those costs haven’t gotten any better since then. Incumbents will be asked what they did this year to provide some relief. Unfortunately, they have little to offer.
Keep reading
ANALYSIS | Will the 2022 Legislative Session Help or Hurt Democrats in the Fall?
The short but surprisingly productive 2022 session of the General Assembly is coming to a close this week. As Democrats race to pass bills, and Republicans do all they can to talk them to death, a question that has to be on the minds of a lot of legislators is what the session means, if…
Keep reading