Highlights

• Attorney General Liz Murrill filed three separate lawsuits against CVS on June 24, 2025, alleging deceptive trade practices and anticompetitive behavior
• CVS sent mass text messages to Louisiana customers on June 11 opposing House Bill 358, which would have banned pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies
• The lawsuits claim CVS systematically underpays independent pharmacies, driving nearly 160 out of business in recent years
• CVS faces allegations of using "vertical integration" to manipulate drug prices through its ownership of multiple levels of the pharmaceutical supply chain
• State seeks injunctive relief and restitution while CVS denies wrongdoing and claims it was protecting customer interests

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill Explains CVS Lawsuits, Charts Legal Path Forward

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is detailing her office's comprehensive legal strategy against pharmacy giant CVS Health Corp., explaining how three separate lawsuits target what she calls a pattern of deceptive business practices that have harmed patients and independent pharmacies across the state.

BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL News) — Louisiana's Attorney General is taking on one of the nation's biggest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and in an interview with KPEL News, she laid out her office's legal path forward.

Liz Murrill announced three separate lawsuits against CVS and its affiliates on June 24, 2025, marking an escalation in the state's battle against pharmacy benefit managers. The legal action stems from CVS's controversial mass text messaging campaign and broader allegations about the company's market practices.

The Text Message Controversy

The most immediate catalyst for the lawsuits came on June 11, 2025, when CVS sent urgent text messages to thousands of Louisiana customers warning that pending legislation would force pharmacy closures and drive up prescription costs.

The messages targeted House Bill 358, which would have prohibited pharmacy benefit managers from owning and operating pharmacies in Louisiana. In an interview with KPEL News, Murrill explained her office's position on the messaging campaign.

"CVS used their customers' personal information, given to them to fill prescriptions, to lobby against legislation," Murrill said during the interview.

The Attorney General believes CVS violated the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by using customer contact information obtained for healthcare purposes to conduct political lobbying. "It was entirely intended to deceptively cause these people to fear the loss of their coverage or to have to pay more for their prescriptions," Murrill told KPEL News. "There was no evidence that that would happen or that they would not be able to get their prescriptions filled somewhere else."

Governor Jeff Landry backed the lawsuits and called pharmacy benefit managers "corporate profiteers" that don't actually lower prescription drug prices despite claiming to do so. The governor had previously demanded an investigation into CVS's text messaging practices, calling them "completely unethical and manipulative."

READ MORE: Louisiana AG Probes CVS Mass Texts Over Pharmacy Bill Drama

The Business Practices Allegations

Beyond the text messaging issue, Murrill's office filed two additional lawsuits targeting CVS's broader business model and its impact on Louisiana's pharmaceutical market.

Independent Pharmacy Squeeze

The second lawsuit accuses CVS of systematically undermining independent pharmacies through predatory business practices. According to Murrill, CVS has driven nearly 160 independent pharmacies out of business in Louisiana in recent years by paying them less than the cost to acquire drugs.

"What they have done instead is find all kinds of ways to claw back money and undercut the recovery of the independent pharmacy for the amount that he had to pay to acquire the drug," Murrill explained in the KPEL interview. "And so now they are basically losing money when they fill prescriptions."

The third lawsuit accuses CVS of using exorbitant fees, coercive contracts and network threats to keep independent pharmacies under pressure. These practices, the state alleges, amount to unfair competition and trade practices under Louisiana law.

The state law requires large pharmacy organizations to pay independent pharmacists at minimum what they had to pay to acquire drugs, but Murrill alleges CVS has not complied with this requirement.

Vertical Integration and Price Manipulation

The third lawsuit targets what Murrill calls CVS's "vertical integration" problem. The company owns multiple layers of the pharmaceutical supply chain, from insurance plans to pharmacy benefit management to retail pharmacies.

"CVS owns everything," Murrill told KPEL News. "You know, so you've got multiple layers of corporate entities that have been built into that vertical column. They're all owned by CVS, and so they all take a slice of profit costs. And the PBM specifically will drive the cost of a drug up to increase the percentage of their rebate."

Murrill also claimed that CVS' pharmacy benefit management unit, CVS Caremark, "controls multiple, interlocking stages of the pharmaceutical supply and reimbursement chain — from insurance to drug pricing, to pharmacy distribution and dispensing."

CVS's Response and Legal Strategy

CVS has denied the allegations and defended its business practices. CVS said that it should not have to pay higher rates for "less efficient pharmacies" and that this would lead to "higher costs for consumers."

Regarding the text messages, CVS stated: "To be clear, we did not use any Office of Group Benefits member information, and we agree with Governor Landry and Attorney General Murrill that OGB data should not be used for this type of outreach."

The company also emphasized its commitment to Louisiana customers: "Our focus is and remains serving the people of Louisiana: lowering drug costs, providing access to care, and helping improve health. We look forward to working productively with policymakers to continue to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible."

However, Murrill expressed skepticism about CVS's willingness to cooperate in discovery. "They will fight us to the ends of the earth to try and protect the confidentiality of all their documents so that nobody can see how they're doing this," she told KPEL News.

The Broader PBM Battle

The CVS lawsuits are part of a larger national conversation about pharmacy benefit managers and their role in driving up prescription drug costs. Murrill noted that her office has filed similar lawsuits against other major PBMs, including OptumRx and Express Scripts.

Together with Caremark, the three control roughly 80% of the national PBM market. The Federal Trade Commission issued a report in 2024 that was highly critical of PBM practices, providing what Murrill called "transparency about some of these trade practices."

The failed House Bill 358 would have forced CVS to choose between operating as a pharmacy benefit manager or owning retail pharmacies in Louisiana, similar to legislation that Arkansas passed earlier this year. CVS has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Arkansas law.

Political and Legal Implications

The timing of the CVS text messages created significant political controversy at the Louisiana Legislature. The messages were sent on June 11, 2025, the second-to-last day of the legislative session, as lawmakers were considering final amendments to House Bill 358.

The bill emerged from a conference committee with a major new addition that would ban pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies, provoking "a furious debate on the House floor and a massive public lobbying campaign from drug-store chain CVS."

Despite passing the House with an 88-4 vote, the bill ultimately failed to pass the Senate before the session ended. Governor Landry has threatened to call a special session to address prescription drug pricing issues.

What's Next

The lawsuits seek both injunctive relief and restitution from CVS. "Restitution would be related to any kind of specific damages that we incur in investigation of the lawsuits and related to their practices," Murrill said.

Additionally, private law firms have filed a class-action lawsuit against CVS over the text messaging campaign, seeking to represent all Louisiana residents who received the messages.

The legal battle represents a significant test of state authority to regulate large pharmacy benefit managers and could have implications for similar efforts in other states. As Murrill noted in her interview, the fight against PBM practices is becoming a national issue, with Louisiana joining other states in challenging what they see as anticompetitive behavior that drives up prescription drug costs for consumers.

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