NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers are set to introduce legislation to break up pharmacy-benefit managers, the drug middlemen that have now faced yearslong scrutiny from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday.

A Senate bill would force the companies that own health insurers or pharmacy-benefit managers to divest their pharmacy businesses within three years. A companion bill, which sponsors say draws on a history of government prohibitions on joint ownership within industries, was also scheduled to be introduced in the House on Wednesday.

"If passed, the legislation would be the most far-reaching intervention yet into the operations of pharmacy-benefit managers, known as PBMs, and their parent companies, cutting off a major source of revenue for the companies and frustration for patients," noted the report.

"PBMs have manipulated the market to enrich themselves, hiking up drug costs, cheating employers, and driving small pharmacies out of business," said the report, adding that the legislation "will stop the insurance companies and PBMs from gobbling up even more of American healthcare and charging American families more and more for less."

It is unlikely the bills could get enacted into law in this Congress, because it is wrapping up its session. Backers are trying to lay the groundwork for passage next year, it added.