Express Scripts, Inc., PBM Litigation

In a proposed class action against pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts, Inc., the named plaintiffs sought to represent five proposed classes of self-funded ERISA plans.

Retained by Husch Blackwell Sanders

In a proposed class action against pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts, Inc., the named plaintiffs sought to represent five proposed classes of self-funded ERISA plans. The plaintiffs alleged that (1) “…Express Scripts is a fiduciary under ERISA and that Express Scripts breaches its fiduciary duties in several ways,” and (2) “[a]s a result, Express Scripts is enriched and the Plans are deprived of assets that rightfully belong to them.” Counsel for Express Scripts retained Cornerstone Research and an economics expert to evaluate whether the plaintiffs’ claims could be proven on a class-wide basis using common evidence or whether individual inquiry would be required.

Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh denied the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in its entirety.

In a July 30, 2008, opinion, Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh denied the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in its entirety. After extensive expert discovery, Judge Limbaugh concluded “each PBM contract may generate a distinct outcome in terms of a PBM’s duties and compensation.… Defendant rightly asserts that the putative class members compose a potentially massive and heterogeneous body.…This Court declines to base the interests of potentially thousands of plans, whose PBM contracts were vastly different in substance and in form, on the assumptions of a few.”