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B-295888 1 (2005-05-13)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaqvo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A G A O Comptroller General . Accountability * Integrity * Reliability of the United States United States Government Accountability Office DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE Washington, DC 20548 The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: Merck & Company, Inc. File: B-295888 Date: May 13, 2005 Deneen J. Melander, Esq., and Steven A. Alerding, Esq., Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, for the protester. Lynn T. Burleson, Esq., TRICARE Management Activity, Department of Defense, for the agency. Ralph 0. White, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1. Government Accountability Office has jurisdiction to review a protest challenging the terms of a quotation request for a possible blanket purchase agreement which is being used by the Department of Defense's TRICARE Management Activity (pursuant to its statutory authority to establish a pharmacy benefits program, including a uniform formulary) to inform, and then implement, a TRICARE formulary determination. 2. Decision by the TRICARE Management Activity to consider the cost of pharmaceutical agents obtained by TRICARE beneficiaries at retail pharmacies participating in TRICARE's retail pharmacy network as part of its review of cost effectiveness undertaken to determine whether to add a pharmaceutical agent to the uniform formulary is reasonable where the statutory authorization for the pharmacy benefit program requires the agency to consider the cost effectiveness of pharmaceutical agents as part of any such determination, and where the record shows that more than half of TRICARE's expenditures for pharmaceutical agents are incurred for prescriptions filled by beneficiaries at such retail pharmacies. 3. Protester's assertion that the agency is unreasonably obtaining quotations applicable to only two of the venues where TRICARE beneficiaries can have their prescriptions filled (military treatment facilities and the mail order pharmacy), and is using what is, in essence, a plug number unique to each company (L.e., the Federal Ceiling Price applicable to certain types of purchases from the Federal Supply Schedule) for its assessment of the costs that will be incurred in purchasing each agent from participating retail pharmacies (the third venue where prescriptions can

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