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Patient communities, including those with food allergy and their families, are suffering because PBMs are keeping us from filling our medical prescriptions. Take action today.
Take ActionPharmacy Benefit Managers Are Preventing Access and Driving Up Prices of Life-Saving Medicine
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are the third-party companies that manage prescription drug benefits for health insurance companies and employers. They have been in place since the 1960s, serving as middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain.
As Congress moves closer to considering legislation aimed at reforming the structure and rules governing PBMs, we call for an increase of transparency and accountability in PBM practices.
Barriers to Access for the Food Allergy Community
33 million people in the U.S. live with food allergy, which can cause a kind of life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. The only first-line treatment that stops anaphylaxis is epinephrine. Our community has waited over 25 years for innovation and new food allergy treatments. Now, with new treatments available, we are being denied access and experiencing high wait times and complications.
In June 2025, FARE was in dialogue with 148 food allergy advocates to discuss their familys' patient-experiences. Responses revealed significant barriers in their efforts to fill epinephrine prescriptions. Over a quarter of respondents live more than 20 minutes from an ER, making reliable epinephrine access even more critical.
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My insurance seems to frequently change what the insurance network covered [epinephrine] brand is. It takes multiple tries, since myself, the doctors, and the pharmacy have to guess and redo the whole prescription process more than once each time.
FARE Survey Respondent (June 2025)
Learn More About PBMs
From the American Medical Association (Summer 2025)
Policy Research Perspectives Competition in PBM Markets and Vertical Integration of Insurers with PBMs: 2025 Update
From the Federal Trade Commission (January 2025)
Specialty Generic Drugs: A Growing Profit Center for Vertically Integrated Pharmacy Benefit Managers
We need to support patients and advocate for their essential access to life-saving medications.
A Message from Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, FARE CEO
Please take this important step in letting insurance companies know how we feel about the ways that Pharmacy Benefit Managers have complicated our pursuit of medical care. We cannot wait on life-saving innovations in treatment and medication because of bureaucratic interference. By sharing your story, you are driving change.
On behalf of FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), which helps more than 33 million people in the U.S. manage the journey of living with a disease that can cause life-threatening allergic reactions, I am grateful for this advocacy and support. FARE is united with the larger patient community.
With Appreciation,
Sung Poblete, PhD, RN
CEO of FARE
Take Action Now
Sample Language for an Email to Insurance Companies
Sample Subject Line: Add New Food Allergy Innovations to Your Formularies!
To Whom It May Concern,
As one of the more than 33 million Americans living with food allergy, I’m writing to express my deep frustration and growing outrage at the barriers your industry continues to place between patients and the life changing, life-saving medications we need.
We live with a disease that can take our lives or the lives of those we care for in minutes. For decades, we’ve had no new treatment options. Now, after years of advocacy, the FDA has finally approved two breakthrough innovations for our community—Xolair and neffy—and yet it’s your industry that now stands between us and these new options.
Why are you blocking access to medications that our doctors have prescribed? Why do you refuse to add them to your formularies?
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and insurance companies are inserting themselves into the most critical relationship we have, the one between patient and physician. You are delaying, denying, and driving up the cost of care for people whose safety depends on timely access to treatment and immediate access to epinephrine.
Choice matters. Many of us live with a fear of needles, and that fear can cause dangerous delays in administering epinephrine during a reaction. Those delays can land us in the hospital or worse. neffy provides a needle-free alternative that can save lives, but only if it’s accessible. Help us help you—give patients what we need to be ready to act quickly.
Every delay is a potential death sentence.
Every added cost is a barrier to survival.
Every denial is a betrayal of the promise to protect public health.
We’re not asking for luxuries. We’re demanding access to FDA-approved, physician-prescribed medications that can reduce the severity of food allergy reaction, reverse anaphylaxis and save lives.
Stop getting between us and our doctors. Stop putting profits over patients. Start doing your job—helping people stay healthy and alive.
Everyone deserves care, everyone deserves access to medications.
Sincerely,
[Name]
[Address/Area]