Express Scripts, one of the country’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, sued the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Tuesday and demanded the agency retract a report saying the industry middlemen

Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts sued the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday over the regulator's recent drug pricing report, calling the report's conclusion that the prescription middlemen raise drug costs defamatory.

At issue is a report released by the FTC in July called: “Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs and Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies.” Express Scripts claims in the lawsuit that the report “is seventy-four pages of unsupported innuendo” leveled against it and other PBMs.

The owner of one of the three largest pharmacy middlemen in the United States on Tuesday filed suit to quash an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to investigate industry practices. However, the suit relies on research that the health conglomerate helped pay for and was conducted by an economist who’s become wealthy arguing in

Express Scripts parent company Cigna alleges the Federal Trade Commission ignored more than 3 million pages of documents the pharmacy provided to investigators.

The major PBM said its lawsuit is necessary to protect against misinformation about the controversial drug middlemen, while the FTC promised to defend its research.