American Pinocchio: SHARx Takes on the Rx Lies Costing Americans Billions

While Americans pay as much as $120,000 a year for treatments that cost ~$25,000 in Europe, drug companies and PBMs pocket massive margins. SHARx is exposing the myth of "unsafe importation" and delivering a transparent, compliant solution.

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- From TrumpRx to allegations around insulin price fixing, pharma prices have been grabbing a lot of attention lately. Employer health plans are reeling from soaring specialty drug prices, and Big Pharma is pushing narratives that attempt to cast global drug sourcing as "unsafe." Beyond the headlines, one industry insider says the real story is finally coming into focus: The U.S. drug pricing structure, not responsible global sourcing, is really the culprit that puts Americans at risk.

As Chief Growth Officer and Co-Founder of SHARx, Paul Pruitt makes these comments nearly one year after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report that found  vertically integrated pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their affiliated specialty pharmacies imposed "hundreds or thousands of percent" markups on many generic and specialty drugs, generating more than $7.3 billion in excess revenue from 2017–2022.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reaffirmed and expanded state pathways under Section 804, allowing importation of certain prescription drugs from Canada when safety and compliance standards are met—explicitly stating that such programs can lower prices "without increased risk to public health." It applies only to medications made in FDA-inspected facilities that match U.S. versions in quality and safety. The law targets price relief—not unapproved or experimental drugs.

"These reports prove what employers and patients have known for years," said Pruitt. "The most dangerous part of the U.S. pharmaceutical system isn't responsible global sourcing. The main danger comes from a pricing system that is intentionally complicated, closely interconnected, and relies on keeping list prices high."

Setting the Record Straight on "Unsafe Importation" 

Pruitt says recent headlines—amplified by pharmaceutical interests—mischaracterize drug importation to discourage competition.

"It is simply inaccurate to suggest that imported medication is inherently 'unsafe' solely because it is dispensed by a pharmacy outside the United States," Pruitt said. "Pharmacies in countries such as Canada are highly regulated and source their medications through licensed wholesalers—just as pharmacies do in the U.S. The real safety concern arises when individuals attempt to navigate this on their own, especially through anonymous online vendors where it may be impossible to verify who is dispensing the medication."

"But that is not what we offer our members," Pruitt emphasized. "SHARx and other reputable pharmaceutical sourcing programs do not provide unapproved or questionable products. We provide access only to medications that are manufactured in FDA-inspected facilities and sold globally by the same companies that sell them in the U.S. In fact, the FDA's own policy manual notes that personnel may allow entry of personally imported medications when the quantity and purpose are clearly for personal use and the product does not present an unreasonable risk. Our focus is—and always has been—on safety, transparency, and ensuring members have affordable access to legitimate, verifiable medication from trusted sources."

Pruitt notes that millions of Americans legally receive medications made in Ireland, India, Germany, Italy, and Singapore every day—because most large pharmaceutical companies manufacture overseas. "If safety were the real concern, the FDA wouldn't be expanding Section 804 importation pathways," he added. "The concern isn't safety. It's revenue."

A Complex System Built to Confus

The pharma industry is characterized by extraordinary complexity—and intentional opacity—in the U.S. supply chain. An alphabet soup of entities such as PBMs, PSAOs, and GPOs, or pricing models like NADAC, AWP, and WAC, are just part of a system that obscures pricing practices and creates confusion for employers, plan administrators, patients, and lawmakers.

"The PBM-controlled system is structured so no employer, no patient, and very few policymakers can trace the real price of anything," Pruitt said. "That's why the FTC findings matter. For the first time, a federal agency quantified the excessive markups and back-door economics employers have long suspected but couldn't see."

Global Sourcing: Fair-Pricing Mechanism. Not a Loophole

Pruitt argues that global sourcing, when done responsibly, through licensed and vetted channels, is a legitimate tool that brings drug costs back in line with international norms.

"Americans routinely pay two to ten times more for the same medication than patients in Europe or Canada," Pruitt said, citing FDA and White House statements acknowledging the extreme disparity. "Global sourcing doesn't undermine the system—it pulls U.S. pricing back into the realm of sanity."

The White House's 2025 Most-Favored-Nation pricing directive reinforced this idea, pushing drugmakers to offer Americans the same prices available in other wealthy nations. Shortly afterward, Pfizer agreed to provide lower prices for certain medications for Medicaid beneficiaries, according to reporting from Reuters. "If global pricing parity is good enough for Medicaid," Pruitt said, "why shouldn't employers have access to it, too?"

SHARx: Disrupting the Traditional System 

Pruitt founded SHARx after confronting the unaffordable cost of medications for two of his own children. Today, he says the company partners with employers facing impossible choices.

"When a CFO tells us, 'I can't sleep—we may have to stop covering essential medications,' that's not a theoretical policy debate. That's real human impact," Pruitt said. "The traditional system has failed them. It failed their employees. And it has failed the taxpayers funding inflated Medicare and Medicaid costs."

Pruitt says the public deserves clarity—not fear-based messaging shaped by those benefiting from the status quo.

"Global sourcing is already safe and it's already helping employers survive," he said. "The real question isn't whether responsible sourcing poses risk; it's why Americans have been told for so long that paying the highest drug prices in the world is the only option."

About SHARx

SHARx was founded to fight back against the broken system of overpriced prescription drugs. Industry pioneers Corey Durbin and Paul Pruitt built SHARx to put people before profits. With an innovative and ethical sourcing model, SHARx cuts through the waste with radical transparency, common-sense cost containment, and a member-first approach. No hidden markups. No games. Just the meds people need, delivered affordably, reliably, and with dignity.

Learn more at: https://sharxplan.com

References

• Federal Trade Commission. (2025, January 14). Specialty generic drugs: A growing profit center for vertically integrated pharmacy benefit managers — Second interim staff report. Federal Trade Commission.
• Mintz. (2025, January 30). PBM update: Special edition — FTC releases second interim staff report in PBM inquiry. Mintz – Life Sciences & Healthcare.
• Straight Arrow News. (2025, January 15). "Big 3" pharmacy benefit managers marked up drugs by $7.3B: FTC. Straight Arrow News.
• The White House. (2025, May 12). Delivering most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing to American patients.
• The White House. (2025, May 12). Fact sheet: President Donald J. Trump announces actions to put American patients first by lowering drug prices and stopping foreign free-riding on American pharmaceutical innovation.
• The White House. (2025, September 30). The White House fact sheet – First deal to bring most-favored-nation pricing to American patients.

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SOURCE SHARx