Arkansas has become the first state to ban pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed House Bill 1150 into law April 16. The legislation, sponsored by state Rep.

NCPA, which represents the country’s independent community pharmacies, has also persistently advocated that state and federal policymakers rein in the conflicts of interest and anticompetitive business practices that arise with PBMs vertically integrated upstream with health insurers and downstream with pharmacies.