What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group are demanding Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and two other commissioners recuse themselves from a suit accusing the companies and other drug middlemen of boosting their profits while inflating insulin costs for Americans. In separate motions filed Tuesday night with the FTC, CVS and UnitedHealth argued that all three commissioners have an extensive track record of making public statements that indicate "serious bias" against the companies' so-called pharmacy benefit managers. The companies accused Khan, as well as Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, of incorrectly asserting that PBMs are "price gougers" that hold significant control over the pricing and access to drugs like insulin. CVS said those statements demonstrate that the commissioners have "prejudged this matter," so their participation in the case "violates due process." "If the opposite of 'complete fairness' is 'blatant bias,' the Three Commissioners would easily satisfy even that standard," CVS wrote in a 23-page motion. Meanwhile, UnitedHealth's 17-page motion said, "Any judge who made these remarks about a litigant at the outset of a lawsuit would immediately need to recuse for blatant bias." The FTC on Wednesday declined CNBC's request for comment on the motion.

Other corporate giants, including Amazon and Meta , have unsuccessfully pushed for Khan to be disqualified from previous cases or investigations, citing concerns about her objectivity. Khan has resisted those calls, saying she has never prejudged any case or set of facts. The FTC filed the suit last month against the three largest PBMs, CVS Health's Caremark, UnitedHealth Group 's Optum Rx and Cigna 's Express Scripts. All are owned by or connected to health insurers and collectively administer about 80% of the nation's prescriptions, according to the FTC. The FTC filed its complaint through its so-called administrative process, which initiates a proceeding before an administrative judge who would hear the case. PBMs sit at the center of the drug supply chain in the U.S., negotiating medication rebates with manufacturers on behalf of insurers, creating lists of preferred medications covered by health plans and reimbursing pharmacies for prescriptions. The FTC has been investigating PBMs and their role in insulin prices since 2022. The agency's lawsuit argues that the three PBMs have created a "perverse" system that prioritizes high rebates from manufacturers, which leads to "artificially inflated insulin list prices." The suit also alleges that PBMs favor high-list-price insulins even when insulins with lower list prices become available. The lawsuit also includes each PBM's affiliated group purchasing organization, or GPO, which brokers drug purchases for hospitals and other health-care providers. Zinc Health Services operates as the GPO for Caremark, while Emisar Pharma acts as the GPO for OptumRx. Ascent Health Services is the GPO for Cigna. The lawsuit is just one of several headwinds CVS is facing. Shares of the company are down more than 20% this year as it grapples with runaway medical costs in its insurance segment and pharmacy reimbursement pressure. CVS has engaged advisors in a strategic review of its business, which could potentially involve splitting the company's insurer from its retail pharmacies. It's unclear where Caremark would fall in the case of a breakup.

A general view shows a sign of CVS Health Customer Support Center in CVS headquarters of CVS Health Corp in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, U.S. October 30, 2023. Faith Ninivaggi | Reuters

• Read More